THE CONSOLE

“Jerry?”

Norman stared at the console screen. It remained blank, just a blinking cursor.

“Jerry, are you there?” The screen was blank.

“I wonder why we aren’t hearing from you, Jerry,” Norman said.

The screen remained blank.

“Trying a little psychology?” Beth said. She was checking the controls for the external sensors, reviewing the graphs. “If you ask me, the person you should use your psychology on is Harry.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, I don’t think Harry should be screwing around with our life-support systems. I don’t think he’s stable.”

“Stable?”

“That’s a psychologist’s trick, isn’t it? To repeat the last word in a sentence. It’s a way to keep the person talking.”

“Talking?” Norman said, smiling at her.

“Okay, maybe I am a little stressed out,” she said. “But, Norman, seriously. Before I left for the ship, Harry came into this room and said he would take over for me. I told him you were at the sub but there weren’t any squid around and that I wanted to go to the ship. He said fine, he’d take over. So I left. And now he doesn’t remember any of that. Doesn’t that strike you as pretty screwy?”

“Screwy?” Norman said.

“Stop it, be serious.”

“Serious?” Norman said.

“Are you trying to avoid this conversation? I notice how you avoid what you don’t want to talk about. You keep everybody on an even keel, steer the conversation away from hard topics. But I think you should listen to what I’m saying, Norman. There’s a problem with Harry.”

“I’m listening to what you’re saying, Beth.”

“And?”

“I wasn’t present for this particular episode, so I don’t really know. What I see of Harry now looks like the same old Harry-arrogant, disdainful, and very, very intelligent.”

“You don’t think he’s cracking up?”

“No more than the rest of us.”

“Jesus! What do I have to do to convince you? I had a whole conversation with the man and now he denies it. You think that’s normal? You think we can trust a person like that?”

“Beth. I wasn’t there.”

“You mean it might be me.”

“I wasn’t there.”

“You think I might be the one who’s cracking up? I say there was a conversation when there really wasn’t?”

“Beth.”

“Norman, I’m telling you. There is a problem about Harry and you aren’t facing up to it.”

They heard footsteps approaching.

“I’m going to my lab,” she said. “You think about what I’ve said.”

She climbed the ladder as Harry walked in. “Well, guess what? Beth did an excellent job with the life-support systems. Everything looks fine. We have air for fifty-two hours more at present rates of consumption. We should be fine. You talking to Jerry?”

“What?” Norman said. Harry pointed to the screen: 

  HELLO NORMAN.

“I don’t know when he came back. He wasn’t talking earlier.”

“Well, he is now,” Harry said. 

 HELLO HARRY. 

“How’s it going, Jerry?” Harry said.

FINE THANK YOU. HOW ARE YOU? I AM WANTING SO MUCH TO TALK WITH YOUR ENTITIES. WHERE IS THE CONTROL ENTITY HARALD C. BARNES?

“Don’t you know?” 

 I DO NOT SENSE THAT ENTITY NOW. 

“He’s, uh, gone.”

I SEE. HE WAS NOT FRIENDLY. HE DID NOT ENJOY TO TALK WITH ME.

Norman thought, What is he telling us? Did Jerry get rid of Barnes because he thought he was unfriendly?

“Jerry,” Norman said, “what happened to the control entity?”

HE WAS NOT FRIENDLY. I DID NOT LIKE HIM.

“Yes, but what happened to him?” 

 HE IS NOT NOW. 

“And the other entities?”

AND THE OTHER ENTITIES. THEY DID NOT ENJOY TO TALKING WITH ME.

Harry said, “You think he’s saying he got rid of them?

I AM NOT HAPPY TO TALKING WITH THEM.

“So he got rid of all the Navy people?” Harry said. Norman was thinking, That’s not quite correct. He also got rid of Ted, and Ted was trying to communicate with him. Or with the squid. Was the squid related to Jerry? How would Norman ask that?

“Jerry…”

 YES NORMAN. I AM HERE.

“Let’s talk.”

 GOOD. I LIKE THAT MUCH.

“Tell us about the squid, Jerry.”

THE ENTITY SQUID IS A MANIFESTATION.

“Where did it come from?”

DO YOU LIKE IT? I CAN MANIFEST IT MORE FOR YOU.

“No, no, don’t do that,” Norman said quickly.

 YOU DO NOT LIKE IT?

“No, no. We like it, Jerry.”

 THIS IS TRUE?

“Yes, true. We like it. Really we do.”

GOOD. I AM PLEASED YOU LIKE IT. IT IS A VERY IMPRESSIVE ENTITY OF LARGE SIZE.

“Yes, it is,” Norman said, wiping sweat from his forehead. Jesus, he thought, this is like talking to a child with a loaded gun.

IT IS DIFFICULT FOR ME TO MANIFEST THIS LARGE ENTITY. I AM PLEASED THAT YOU LIKE IT.

“Very impressive,” Norman agreed. “But you do not need to repeat that entity for us.”

YOU WISH A NEW ENTITY MANIFESTED FOR YOU?

“No, Jerry. Nothing right now, thank you.”

 MANIFESTING IS HAPPY FOR ME.

“Yes, I’m sure it is.”

I AM ENJOYING TO MANIFEST FOR YOU NORMAN. AND ALSO FOR YOU HARRY.

“Thank you, Jerry.”

I AM ENJOYING YOUR MANIFESTATIONS ALSO.

“Our manifestations?” Norman said, glancing at Harry. Apparently Jerry thought that the people on the habitat were manifesting something in return. Jerry seemed to consider it an exchange of some kind.

YES I AM ENJOYING YOUR MANIFESTATIONS ALSO.

“Tell us about our manifestations, Jerry,” Norman said.

THE MANIFESTATIONS ARE SMALL AND THEY DO NOT EXTEND BEYOND YOUR ENTITIES BUT THE MANIFESTATIONS ARE NEW FOR ME. THEY ARE HAPPY FOR ME.

“What’s he talking about?” Harry said.

 YOUR MANIFESTATIONS HARRY.

“What manifestations, for Christ’s sake?”

“Don’t get mad,” Norman warned. “Stay calm.”

I AM LIKING THAT ONE HARRY. DO AN OTHER.

Norman thought: Is he reading emotions? Does he regard our emotions as manifestations? But that didn’t make sense. Jerry couldn’t read their minds; they’d already determined that. Maybe he’d better check again. Jerry, he thought, can you hear me?

I AM LIKING HARRY. HIS MANIFESTATIONS ARE RED. THEY ARE WITFUL.

“Witful?”

 WITFUL = FULL OF WIT?

“I see,” Harry said. “He thinks we’re funny.”

 FUNNY = FULL OF FUN?

“Not exactly,” Norman said. “We entities have the concept of…” He trailed off. How was he going to explain “funny”? What was a joke, anyway? “We entities have the concept of a situation which causes discomfort and we call this situation humorous.”

 HUME OR US?

“No. One word.” Norman spelled it for him.

I SEE. YOUR MANIFESTATIONS ARE HUMOROUS. THE ENTITY SQUID MAKES MANY HUMOROUS MANIFESTATIONS FROM YOU.

“We don’t think so,” Harry said.

  I THINK SO.

And that about summed it up, Norman thought, sitting at the console. Somehow he had to make Jerry understand the seriousness of his actions. “Jerry,” Norman explained, “your manifestations injure our entities. Some of our entities are already gone.”

 YES I KNOW.

“If you continue your manifestations-”

YES I AM LIKING TO MANIFEST. IT IS HUMOROUS FOR YOU.

“-then pretty soon all our entities will be gone. And then there will be no one to talk to you.”

 I DO NOT WISH THAT.

“I know that. But many entities are gone already.”

 BRING THEM BACK.

“We can’t do that. They are gone forever.”

 WHY?

“We cannot bring them back.”

 WHY?

Just like a kid, Norman thought. Just exactly like a kid. Telling the kid you can’t do what he wants, you can’t play the way he wants to play, and he refuses to accept it.