Destroyer of Worlds Read Online Free

inexplicable terror which momentarily disorganised the entire personnel of the ship. All agree on certain points; the desire to run, to hide, to withdraw. Fortunately, it didn’t last long enough to endanger anyone.’
    ‘No visual stimuli?’
    For a moment she hesitated then said, ‘Not that anyone will admit to. As far as it goes those in the auditorium are the only ones who actually saw anything unusual. And not everyone will admit to that now.’
    A self-protective refusal to accept the evidence of their own senses and a natural one. Hallucinations were always worrisome and no one would be willing to admit they suffered from them. And yet Maddox had no doubt as to what he had seen and heard.
    Neither had Claire but Manton, oddly, had less certainty.
    ‘I was in the projection booth,’ he explained. ‘As you know the ghost was a hologram projected on a cloud of controlled vapour — we used a gas with a high metallic content and managed to shape and move it by the use of powerful magnetic fields. Rather effective, do you agree?’
    ‘Wonderful,’ said Maddox dryly. ‘But the voice?’
    ‘Projected through electronic filters. The sonic emitters were set facing the auditorium, of course. The strength of projection was two degrees above the lower level of conscious awareness. An application of subliminal influence, you understand.’ He broke off, coughing, suddenly aware that he had been rambling. ‘I’m sorry to be a poor witness, Carl, but if we caused what happened then I am totally unaware of how it was done. The energies involved simply don’t lend themselves to such a conclusion.’
    ‘What you are saying is that what happened could not have been caused by any actions of our own. Is that it?’
    Manton drew in his breath. ‘Yes, Carl. That is what I’m saying.’
    ‘Claire?’
    ‘I’ve checked Eric’s figures as far as I’m able and I must agree with him,’ she said. ‘Certainly the sonic projectors could never have affected the entire ship and we do know that all personnel experienced the sudden emotional panic though in a greater or lesser degree. The node seems to have been the auditorium. It was also the point of greatest visual derangement — at least more people were willing to admit they saw something there than anywhere else.’
    ‘And the words?’ Maddox stared from one to the other as neither made comment. ‘I take it that we did hear the words?’
    ‘We did, Carl, yes,’ admitted Claire.
    ‘We? You mean you and I? How about the others? Eric?’ Maddox frowned as Manton shook his head. They had met in his office, the wide doors leading to Mission Control now closed. Rising from behind his desk he crossed the floor with short, impatient strides. The lines of his face were deep, the contours set in rigid planes.
    He said, curtly, ‘There’s a mystery here and I want to solve it. A fictional ghost turns into a bearded prophet and —’
    ‘Bearded?’ Claire looked startled. ‘Carl, that figure didn’t have a beard. It was clean-shaven and wore a dress suit with a decoration of some kind.’
    ‘It was bearded,’ said Maddox. ‘At least the thing I saw had a beard and a robe of some kind. You say it wasn’t — which means?’
    ‘If the both of you looked at the same thing and each saw a different image then there is only one thing it can mean.’ Manton was positive. ‘What you saw was subjective, not objective. In other words, it wasn’t really there, you only imagined it was.’
    ‘Claire?’
    ‘I agree with Eric. It is the only way to explain the differing reports I’ve received. Even accounting for hysteria and natural diversity in recounting a traumatic experience there is too much divergence. Some are too vague to be even logical; others mention octopod and polypoidal creatures as if they were recounting the stuff of nightmare. Nonsense, of course, but illuminating.’
    ‘Nightmare,’ said Maddox. He looked at his left hand, the fingers were clenched and,