The Robert Silverberg Science Fiction MEGAPACK® Read Online Free Page B

Two said.
    “They are Alaree,” Alaree One said. “And I am Alaree. I .”
    At that moment there was a disturbance in the shrubbery, and half a dozen more aliens stepped through and confronted Alarees One and Two.
    “We are Alaree,” Alaree Two repeated exasperatingly. He made a sweeping gesture that embraced all seven of the aliens to my left, but pointedly excluded Alaree One at my right.
    “Are we—you coming with we—us?” Alaree Two demanded. I heard the six others say something in approximately the same tone of voice, but since they weren’t wearing converters, their words were only scrambled nonsense to me.
    Alaree One looked at me in pain, then back at his seven fellows. I saw an expression of sheer terror in the small creature’s eyes. He turned to me.
    “I must go with them,” he said softly. He was quivering with fear.
    Without a further word, the eight marched silently away. I stood there, shaking my head in bewilderment.
    We were scheduled to leave the next day. I said nothing to my crew about the bizarre incident of the evening before, but noted in my log that the native life of the planet would require careful study at some future time.
    Blast-off was slated for 1100. As the crew moved efficiently through the ship, securing things, packing, preparing for departure, I sensed a general feeling of jubilation. They were happy to be on their way again, and I didn’t blame them.
    About half an hour before blast-off, Willendorf came to me. “Sir, Alaree’s down below,” he said. “He wants to come up and see you. He looks very troubled, sir.”
    I frowned. Probably the alien still wanted to go back with us. Well, it was cruel to deny the request, but I wasn’t going to risk that fine. I intended to make that clear to him.
    “Send him up,” I said.
    A moment later Alaree came stumbling into my cabin. Before he could speak I said, “I told you before—I can’t take you off this planet, Alaree. I’m sorry about it.”
    He looked up pitiably and said, “You mustn’t leave me!” He was trembling uncontrollably.
    “What’s wrong, Alaree?” I asked.
    He stared intensely at me for a long moment, mastering himself, trying to arrange what he wanted to tell me into a coherent argument. Finally he said, “They would not take me back. I am alone.”
    “Who wouldn’t take you back, Alaree?”
    “ They. Last night, Alaree came for me, to take me back. They are a we —an entity, a oneness. You cannot understand. When they saw what I had become, they cast me out.”
    I shook my head dizzily. “What do you mean?”
    “You taught me…to become an I ,” he said, moistening his lips. “Before, I was part of we—they . I learned your ways from you, and now there is no room for me here. They have cut me off. When the final break comes, I will not be able to stay on this world.”
    Sweat was pouring down his pale face, and he was breathing  harder. “It will come any minute. They are gathering strength for  it. But I am I ,” he said triumphantly. He shook violently and gasped  for breath.
    I understood now. They were all Alaree. It was one planet-wide, self-aware corporate entity, composed of any number of individual cells. He had been one of them—but he had learned independence.
    Then he had returned to the group—but he carried with him the seeds of individualism, the deadly, contagious germ we Terrans spread everywhere. Individualism would be fatal to such a group mind; it was cutting him loose to save itself. Just as diseased cells must be excised for the good of the entire body, Alaree was inexorably being cut off from his fellows lest he destroy the bond that made them one.
    I watched him as he sobbed weakly on my acceleration cradle. “They…are…cutting…me…loose… now !”
    He writhed horribly for a brief moment, and then relaxed and sat up on the edge of the cradle. “It is over,” he said calmly. “I am fully independent.”
    I saw a stark aloneness reflected in his eyes,