This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction April1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.copyright on this publication was renewed.
Garthand The Visitor
If you could ask them, you mightbe greatly surprised—some tabusvery urgently want to be broken!
Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS
Although as brash asany other ace newspaperreporter for a high schoolweekly—and there is no onebrasher—Garth was scared. Hishead crest lifted spasmodically andthe rudimentary webbing betweenhis fingers twitched. To answer adare, Garth was about to attemptsomething that had never beendared before: a newspaper interviewwith The Visitor. There hadbeen questions enough asked andanswered during the thousands ofyears The Visitor had sat in hisegg-shaped palace on the mountaintop,but no interviews. It wasshocking even to think about—somethinglike requesting a gossippychat with God.
Of course, nobody believed thefable any longer that The Visitorwould vanish if he was ever askeda personal question—and that hewould first destroy the man whoasked. It was known, or at leastsuspected, that the Palace wasmerely a mile-long spaceship.
Garth, as tradition required,climbed the seven-mile-long rock-hewnpath to the Palace on foot. Hepaused for a moment on the broad platform at the top of the pyramidto catch his breath and let thebeating of his heart slow to normalafter his long climb beforehe entered The Palace. He sigheddeeply. The sufferings a reporterwas willing to go through to get astory or take a dare!
“Well, come in if you’re goingto,” said an impatient voice. “Don’tjust stand there and pant.”
“Yes, my Lord Visitor,” Garthmanaged to say.
He climbed the short ladder,passed through the two sets ofdoors and entered a small roomto kneel, with downcast eyes, beforethe ancient figure huddled inthe wheelchair.
The Visitor looked at thekneeling figure for a momentwithout speaking. The boy lookedvery much like a human, in spiteof such superficial differences ascrest and tail. In fact, as a smooth-skinnedthinking biped, with awell-developed moral sense, he fitThe Visitor’s definition of a human.It wasn’t just the lonelinessof seven thousand years ofisolation, either. When he hadfirst analyzed these people, justafter that disastrous forced landingso long ago, he had classifiedthem as human. Not homo sapiens,of course, but human all the same.
“Okay,” he said, somewhatquerulously. “Get up, get up.You’ve got some questions for me,I hope? I don’t get many peopleup here asking questions any more.Mostly I’m all alone except for theceremonial visits.” He paused.“Well, speak up, young man. Haveyou got something to ask me?”
Garth scrambled to his feet“Yes, my Lord Visitor,” he said. “Ihave several questions.”
The Visitor chuckled reedily.“You may find the answers justa little bit hard to understand.”
Garth smiled, some of his fearvanishing. The Visitor sounded alittle like his senile grandfather,back home. “That is why you areasked so few questions these days,my Lord,” he said. “Our scientistshave about as much troub