View from Another Shore : European Science Fiction Read online

  they looking for?

  First there was this little animal that suddenly appeared in the cell,

  like an octopus, but green all over, with clusters of tentacles and hair

  everywhere . . . And its eyes, waving around on stalks! Where the hell

  did they pick that up? What’s worse, it got through that invisible wall

  and I couldn’t. It’s as if they’re trying to drive us crazy!

  The woman over there was scared out of her mind! Not me. I’ve

  seen a lot, after all. But I can’t figure out how the octopus could get

  through the wall. It disappeared just as it came. Ffft! Gone! In its

  place, six big tubes arrived with bunches of—bunches of little tubes

  that branched out in all directions. I’m not a complete idiot. It was

  perfectly clear to me that it was a test, and that they wanted me to do

  something with these tubes. But what? . . . In the end I just gave up.

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  And finally the invisible wall began to vibrate, vibrate . . . with

  blinding colours, green, orange, red, spinning around, dazzling me . . .

  I couldn’t stand it. Fortunately, it’s over now. They’ve given up. But it doesn’t seem natural to me, all this stuff . . . I’ve got my own theory:

  what if our kidnappers are Martians? That’s right, Martians . . .Mar-

  tians or people from God knows what planet. Because with all these

  stories about flying saucers, you’ve got to be ready for anything!

  Yes sir! Martians!

  Csou.

  I have eliminated the wall. As I have been able to observe, it was

  totally invisible to these creatures, who register only a pitifully limited range of vibrations; nevertheless, Quadragne A, who was in the habit

  of going up to feel it continually, soon perceived its disappearance. He

  reacted to this with excitement, and crossed the former line of

  demarcation to approach Quadragne B. The latter seemed to display

  signs of fear, and retreated. The two Quadragnes then exchanged a

  series of modulated sounds from their head-mandibles: as I have

  noted elsewhere, it is their primitive mode of communication.

  What followed is more curious, and exhibits that character of

  fundamental strangeness which characterizes the vital norms of the

  Quadragnes. I did not really observe how the situation first became

  tense between them, but it is certain that hostilities were declared

  when Quadragne A started to run his upper paws over the body of

  Quadragne B. The latter tried to fend off these attacks by backing

  away and by disordered movements of her paws. Then the two

  Quadragnes, one pursuing the other, made several rounds of the

  cage in rapid propulsion. Quadragne A finally succeeded in pinning

  Quadragne B against a wall, holding her firmly to him with his two

  upper members, and pressing the sucker of his mandibles to his

  adversary’s head (as well as the intermediary articulation). It was

  my initial fear that I was about to witness a scene of cannibalism—I

  prepared to turn on the ongdal gas—but it soon appeared to me that

  this mandible-play was quite superficial and presented no real danger

  for the assaulted Quadragne.

  Finally, Quadragne A introduced his ventral tube (which had in the

  meantime achieved its maximum length) into the small vertical cleft

  which Quadragne B possesses completely beneath her posterior parts,

  concealed under a hairy surface and through which she ordinarily

  discharges her liquid excrements. Quadragne A, holding his victim

  firmly upright, then began to jerk up and down in place, with the

  Observation of Quadragnes

  59

  effect (of course I was observing the process with a powerful magnify-

  ing lens) of slipping his ventral tube into the interior of the cavity of Quadragne B. The back-and-forth movement achieved an accelerated

  rhythm, and the two Quadragnes began to moan softly. Quadragne B

  no longer seemed to be struggling, but passed her upper paws over the

  posterior parts of Quadragne A with a kind of gentleness. Then the two

  animals separated rather abruptly, without my clearly understanding

  the reason. I saw them squat against the wall of the cage, rather distant from each other. The ventral tube of Quadragne A had returned to its

  size that I will henceforth call ‘in repose’. In the eyes of Quadragne B a colourless liquid formed and abundantly exuded.

  *

  *

  *

  *

  *

  O Lord! . . . What have I done? . . . What has been done to me?

  You are my witness that I resisted, that I did what I could to avoid

  . . . what happened. But his young good-for-nothing threw himself on

  me like a wild animal . . . And like an animal, he sated his basest

  instincts.

  What a shame . . . what terrible shame! And this, under those

  invisible eyes which, I well know, never cease from watching us.

  And under Your eyes, Lord! But I must not spend my time lamenting.

  One day this martyrdom will end, I know; I have faith. I have only to

  wait, to be calm, to think of my dear Martial, of my little Pierrot and

  little Annette . . . and to pray.

  *

  *

  *

  *

  *

  I couldn’t resist . . .

  Put yourself in my place! For eight days I was stuck there, going

  around in circles. And then this naked woman in front of me all the

  time!

  When I realized that the goddamn wall had disappeared, I . . . and

  besides if she hadn’t screamed, if she hadn’t started running . . . That’s what excites me, broads who are scared.

  Never mind . . . it’s okay now.

  She’s putting on her crying act, but in a few days she’ll calm down

  and ask for it again. Yes sir! I’ve known them, ones like her. Middle-

  aged broads who haven’t kissed anyone for a long time. It’s hard to

  loosen them up, but after that . . . real furies!

  The stupid thing is that we can’t understand each other. I would

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  J.-P. Andrevon

  never have figured her for a foreigner. She must be French . . . or

  Italian. Apparently Italian women don’t care about getting old. And

  they’re really hot for it.

  Yes, I’d really like her to be Italian . . . I never had an Italian before!

  Csu.

  The two Quadragnes appear to have reached a mode of peaceful co-

  existence. Towards the end of Csou, they resumed their oral commu-

  nication—although the exchanges seemed rather brief to me—and

  when I made it dark in their cage, they lay down with each other, and

  mutually passed their upper paws over all the surfaces of the other’s

  body, particularly over (and in) their excretory organs; the tube of

  Quadragne A again grew to the size which I will call ‘in labour’. Again

  there was introduction, Quadragne A being extended horizontally on

  individual B, and the two animals were ‘facing’. The same grotesque

  dance recommenced, the transition from a vertical position to a

  horizontal position having in no way modified the ritual. Then they

  rapidly fell asleep, very entangled. I ended the observation, quite

  puzzled and, I must admit, sufficiently disgusted.

  *
r />   *

  *

  *

  *

  I’m ashamed to say it, but I feel myself taken with a sort of tenderness

  for this young rascal. Despite his violence and his lack of education, I

  am sure that he is basically good. The young people of today are like

  that, it seems: impulsive, unaccustomed to restraining their instincts.

  Headstrong, in a way . . .

  And what could I do, in the situation in which we find ourselves?

  Struggle, resist to my last breath? That would have been quite stupid

  and would have done no good. When one finds oneself in an

  exceptional situation, one must adapt oneself to exceptional con-

  tingencies. Rather than be enemies, it’s better to be comrades, no

  longer having to ignore certain inconvenient needs.

  Besides, if Martial were able to see me, I am sure that he would

  understand me, that he would pardon me and even approve. Poor

  Martial . . . With him I have never . . . But after all I am a good

  Christian, and there are some things it’s better not to talk about.

  Nevertheless, it would be foolish to be ashamed of our bodies. God

  has made us thus, capable of experiencing sorrow as well as pleasure.

  My modesty forbids me to insist on this point, but when enforced

  contact makes the simplest decency impossible, why desperately wish

  Observation of Quadragnes

  61

  to go against the natural order of things? And then I should also put

  myself in the place of this young man, whom the sight of my naked

  body incites to lust. It is true that I am still young: I am just barely

  thirty-six years old. And I do believe that I am not unattractive . . . To refuse my body in such a situation would be mere hypocrisy; I even

  believe that it would be contrary to the simplest Christian charity.

  One can only give what one has!

  I only regret that we do not speak the same language. It would have

  been truly comforting to exchange ideas on this impossible situation.

  And then we would have been able to know and understand each

  other better . . . He might have said nice things to me, told me that he

  finds me beautiful. But he’s English, alas, English or American—and I

  have completely forgotten the few words of English that I learned at

  school . . .

  No matter! Words don’t count for much in comparison with a

  simple presence. And his is, all things considered, as comforting as

  that of anyone. And thanks to you, my pet, I am no longer alone.

  Despite his long hair and his moustache, I almost find him handsome!

  Dro/Drou/Dru/Dso.

  I have kept the activity of the Quadragnes under constant supervision

  for four cycles, noting the periodicity and the frequency of their

  meals, their evacuations and their ‘copulations’.

  Copulation: this term was suggested to me by 11.427 Green In Sky

  Of Topaz Nadir, who has a certain amount of experience with

  ‘bisexual’ subjects (another new term!). It seems that the introduction

  of the tube and the subsequent dance are the preliminaries to

  semination, strictly speaking; Quadragne A releases his seed into

  Quadragne B, who is then ‘fecundated’. All these rites, then, have

  simply to do with reproduction. I am quite willing to accept the

  explanation of Green In Sky Of Topaz Nadir, but I nonetheless note

  two things: why these repeated relations, when in principle a single

  releasing of seed is enough for the germination of a new being? On

  the other hand, if we grant that these so-called organs of reproduction

  are bound in with orifices of liquid evacuation, then copulation must

  not be a very enjoyable act for the Quadragnes . . . In brief, there is

  more mystery in these animals than in all our philosophy!

  To come back to more practical notations, I was able to observe,

  during the four illuminated periods and the four nocturnal periods

  which have just elapsed, that the Quadragnes copulated eleven times,

  always horizontally, the sole variants being found in their respective

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  J.-P. Andrevon

  posture of domination, Quadragne A sometimes being on top, some-

  times on the bottom. On several occasions, prior to the introduction of

  the tube, the Quadragnes reversed their position (I am tempted to

  represent this new caprice by the sign of a horizontal 69—which is

  not far removed from the symbol of infinity!) to devote themselves to

  buccal-reproductive contacts: at one end, Quadragne B absorbs in her

  buccal air-hole the tube of Quadragne A, while he introduces his

  retractile lapper in the cleft of Quadragne B. I think that these singular manoeuvres must be considered as a sort of symbolic toilet, or

  washing performed on the reproductory organs before the act prop-

  erly so called: it is easily understandable, when one knows for what

  uses the said organs are otherwise employed.

  Aside from these details, I have nothing in particular to note. The

  observation of the Quadragnes has become for me a sort of routine,

  and I no longer take very much interest in it. Moreover, I am going to

  break off for a while this tedious study, since we are nearing the

  megacycle of Fouge-Framme and I will have to put myself in stasis for

  recharging.

  *

  *

  *

  *

  *

  Bed and board, with a pretty woman whenever I want her—who

  could ask for anything more? A little something to drink from time to

  time, of course . . . But I’ve crossed that one out.

  The Martians are A-okay with me!

  Eru.

  Here I am again (with an index of 148!) at the cage of the Quad-

  ragnes. I have hardly observed them today, since the success of my

  charging stasis has impelled me to enter into contact with numerous

  other individualities of class F. Besides, I have resolved to materialize a dorzz with the help of 11.427 Green In Sky Of Topaz Nadir, to the

  limit of instability of our two influxes. This is infinitely more creative than the study of these two primitive organisms. Moreover, their

  activities seem to have become rarefied: the two Quadragnes remain

  squatting, each on his own side, against the wall of the cage and no

  longer seem to be prey to this reproductive madness which agitated

  them prior to Fouge-Framme. But perhaps now that Quadragne B has

  finally been fecundated (all this is perfectly clear to me since stasis,

  when I integrated in my circuits a spool on the customs of sexual

  beings), these two animals no longer feel the need to copulate.

  Observation of Quadragnes

  63

  *

  *

  *

  *

  *

  How well I understand them!

  They’ve started up again! Their filthy tricks, tests, whatever it is . . . it’s started up again.

  My God, I really thought I was going to pop out of my skin, I was so

  scared!

  There I was, peaceful, almost asleep—I have to say that I’ve started

  to have enough of the old girl—when the cage vanished. Yes sir! The

  walls, the ceiling, the floor . . . pffft! All gone! Just me and the dame, standing there in mid-air! But the most incredible thing was, we

  didn’t
fall. At first I said to myself, This is it, they’ve seen enough of our faces, they’ve dropped us without parachutes from their cotton-picking flying saucer . . . But no. We floated in a sky, a sky that was a funny violet colour. And then, all of a sudden, objects came flying

  toward us. Like balls of fire . . . well, not exactly balls of fire . . . I don’t really know how to describe them. Comets, maybe, with wriggling

  tails of fire. They were coming right down on us! I thought it was

  curtains, that we’d go up in flames like a couple of Buddhist monks.

  The broad was screaming her head off—you should’ve heard her.

  And then suddenly there were no more flaming balls. We began to

  descend very gently, like feathers. Far below us, in the purple void, I

  saw a luminous white circle that got bigger and bigger . . . Actually, it wasn’t getting any bigger; we were falling onto it, but very slowly.

  Finally we landed on it, and she throws herself into my arms,

  jabbering something or other in her French or Italian. I told her not

  to get excited, but of course she didn’t understand me.

  The white thing on which we landed was so big that I couldn’t see

  where it ended. I told myself it might be a planet—not Mars, of

  course, because Mars is all red. I tried the ground with my foot. It was

  hard . . . harder than the hardest rock. And so shiny that it made me

  cry just to look at it. We stood there a while without knowing what to

  do, and then all of a sudden something new appeared on the horizon.

  It was like a gigantic pink board that grew, and grew so fast that it

  soon became as big as a mountain. I had the impression that it was

  like a giant saw, cutting up the white plain and coming right toward

  us. We started to run, and suddenly we found ourselves in a kind of

  pink molasses. It wasn’t liquid—we would’ve suffocated—but some-

  thing like a thick dust, and it made us cough. The pink board had

  overtaken us, but it wasn’t as solid as I’d thought.

  I didn’t realize until later that the white plain had disappeared out

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  J.-P. Andrevon

  from under our feet, and that we were floating in the molasses just

  like we’d floated in the sky. There were also piles of stuff moving

  around in this jelly. Stars, it looked like, that expanded and divided,

  stuff riddled with holes like sponges, things with lots of threads

  coming out of them, like big worms . . . I asked myself if they were