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Scientifictionist, v. 1, issue 4, April 1946

Page 14

down in the midst of the huge capital city of Kanan, and perforce become enlisted in the Zongainian cause, the exigencies of the war precluding their immediate return to Dunsaan.

The narrator and his two companions are sent into the city in search of wire needed in repair of the prolo.  Whereupon they get thoroughly lost in the strange and incredibly ancient Kananese city, with its enormous buildings and canyon-like thousand-mile-long (!) streets.  The city, or what they see of it, is deserted, its normal population of a mere 700    , 000,000 (!) apparently having been evacuated.  After an eerie adventure in the Kananese equivalent of catacombs find their way to the city's roof only to be capture by a scouting Kananese prolo and taken to the hidden citadel of Kanan.

There they are interrogated and imprisoned by the Kananese, a strange people, oriental in appearance but quite unhuman in psychology.  Contact with a Zongainian spy in the citadel informs them of he existence there of the Kananese secret weapon, which they must try to destroy, and enables then to escape their prison cell.  In this they are aided by a discovery of one of them, a philologist, that the Kananese are very susceptible to a form of hypnotism, exercised through the medium of their peculiar "musical" language.  The Kananese, it appears, are all audiles, that is, they think in terms of sounds and tonal progressions rather than visual  images, a consequence, perhaps, of the perpetual twilight which enshrouds their world.  At any rate the whilom prisoners are able to subdue large numbers of hostile Kananese, simply by whistling certain musical phrases at them!  In this manner, after a series of exciting adventures they succeed in entering the most carefully guarded spot in  all Kanan.  This is the site of the magnetic projector, the weapon with which the Kananese intended to destroy Zongainian "first fleet".  But our friends seize the projector and hypnotize the operator into turning it on the Kananese feet instead, causing it to crumble to dust.  Kanan is thereby placed at the mercy of Zongainia and the war ends with dispatch.

The three exiles are rescued by Zongainian occupation forces and placed as crew members on the flagship of the victorious fleet as it returns to earth.  they have succeeded, so they think, in passing themselves off as bona fide Zongainian spacemen.  On reaching earth, however, they are surprised (and not a little dismayed, in view of he sentence of exile still hanging over them) to find that both their identity and their deeds in the fortress of Kanan are the talk of Zongainia, and that they are the heroes of the war.  It was a feature of the Zongainian's strong sense of humor that they were left to practice their supposed deception and work their passage as crew members, while the rest of their party, unknown to them, were sharing the suite of the Zongainian leader on the same ship!  All ends happily, however, when their part in winning the war gains the Zongania's highest military honors and honorary Zongainian citizenship for their party, all of who are permitted to return to outer civilization on the strength of their word not to reveal their adventures.  (The narrator apparently didn't keep his pledge so well!)

Narrated in the first person, this story is told in a vivid and lively fashion to which verisimilitude is added by and undercurrent of quiet humor, as through the narrator in retrospect finds amusement in events which must have been anything but funny to the characters at the time.   The description in this vein is particularly good, especially in the portrayal of the characters.

The readers with a mind for logical rigor may with justice raise objections to the possibility of the Kananese people being so very vulnerable to mass hypnosis, and particularly to the ability of the earthing philologist to control them in this manner after but a few hours of listening to Kananese speech,  And likewise the acumen of both the Zongainian and Kananese military commands seems open to serious doubt.  It does seem incredible that the former would not have discovered this Achillean heel of Kanansese psychology during the centuries the two races had been in contact and have put this knowledge to use through the apparently efficient 
(Continued on the bottom of page 18)
page 14

Saving...

down in the midst of the huge capital city of Kanan, and perforce become enlisted in the Zongainian cause, the exigencies of the war precluding their immediate return to Dunsaan. The narrator and his two companions are sent into the city in search of wire needed in repair of the prolo. Whereupon they get thoroughly lost in the strange and incredibly ancient Kananese city, with its enormous buildings and canyon-like thousand-mile-long (!) streets. The city, or what they see of it, is deserted, its normal population of a mere 700 , 000,000 (!) apparently having been evacuated. After an eerie adventure in the Kananese equivalent of catacombs find their way to the city's roof only to be capture by a scouting Kananese prolo and taken to the hidden citadel of Kanan. There they are interrogated and imprisoned by the Kananese, a strange people, oriental in appearance but quite unhuman in psychology. Contact with a Zongainian spy in the citadel informs them of he existence there of the Kananese secret weapon, which they must try to destroy, and enables then to escape their prison cell. In this they are aided by a discovery of one of them, a philologist, that the Kananese are very susceptible to a form of hypnotism, exercised through the medium of their peculiar "musical" language. The Kananese, it appears, are all audiles, that is, they think in terms of sounds and tonal progressions rather than visual images, a consequence, perhaps, of the perpetual twilight which enshrouds their world. At any rate the whilom prisoners are able to subdue large numbers of hostile Kananese, simply by whistling certain musical phrases at them! In this manner, after a series of exciting adventures they succeed in entering the most carefully guarded spot in all Kanan. This is the site of the magnetic projector, the weapon with which the Kananese intended to destroy Zongainian "first fleet". But our friends seize the projector and hypnotize the operator into turning it on the Kananese feet instead, causing it to crumble to dust. Kanan is thereby placed at the mercy of Zongainia and the war ends with dispatch. The three exiles are rescued by Zongainian occupation forces and placed as crew members on the flagship of the victorious fleet as it returns to earth. they have succeeded, so they think, in passing themselves off as bona fide Zongainian spacemen. On reaching earth, however, they are surprised (and not a little dismayed, in view of he sentence of exile still hanging over them) to find that both their identity and their deeds in the fortress of Kanan are the talk of Zongainia, and that they are the heroes of the war. It was a feature of the Zongainian's strong sense of humor that they were left to practice their supposed deception and work their passage as crew members, while the rest of their party, unknown to them, were sharing the suite of the Zongainian leader on the same ship! All ends happily, however, when their part in winning the war gains the Zongania's highest military honors and honorary Zongainian citizenship for their party, all of who are permitted to return to outer civilization on the strength of their word not to reveal their adventures. (The narrator apparently didn't keep his pledge so well!) Narrated in the first person, this story is told in a vivid and lively fashion to which verisimilitude is added by and undercurrent of quiet humor, as through the narrator in retrospect finds amusement in events which must have been anything but funny to the characters at the time. The description in this vein is particularly good, especially in the portrayal of the characters. The readers with a mind for logical rigor may with justice raise objections to the possibility of the Kananese people being so very vulnerable to mass hypnosis, and particularly to the ability of the earthing philologist to control them in this manner after but a few hours of listening to Kananese speech, And likewise the acumen of both the Zongainian and Kananese military commands seems open to serious doubt. It does seem incredible that the former would not have discovered this Achillean heel of Kanansese psychology during the centuries the two races had been in contact and have put this knowledge to use through the apparently efficient (Continued on the bottom of page 18) page 14