The Garments of Caean

‘There’s no reason to think they’re hostile,’ Amara murmured as she studied the advancing space vehicle, ‘and we can’t stay under baffle all the time. How about meeting them half-way, Captain?’

‘If you’re in that much of a hurry.’

‘Yes, yes,’ said Amara eagerly. ‘We have to get to the bottom of this thing just as soon as possible.’

‘Right. Keep your eyes peeled – we’ll be there in minutes.’

He went off-line. Amara turned to Estru as she tapped her vidboard. ‘I’ve a feeling we’re about to add a chapter to the annals of sociology.’

Carrifer, in charge of the information team, came on the screen. ‘Anything on the region yet?’ Amara asked him.

‘Yes, Amara. The Russians were active here. But there’s not much by way of details. Knowledge of that era is so scrappy.’

‘Yes, I know,’ she said impatiently. ‘Well, I hope you can give us a précis pretty soon. Keep at it.’

She cleared the screen, then put it through to the Callan’s sensoring section, obtaining the same view that was being delivered to the bridge.

With perfect ease the Callan swept through millions of miles of void to a meeting with the space object. At a distance of a few hundred yards the bridge crew nullified the ship’s motion. The object now showed itself to be a rectangular raft moving directly outward from the sun, propelling itself by means of two nozzles which emitted a bright blue discharge and looked like electrostatic impellers.

Clinging to the raft were about fifty passengers. Amara turned up the magnification and gasped. She had expected to see more examples like their captured specimen: men who had fitted themselves for life in space by burying their organic bodies in giant suits. But the people on the raft wore no spacesuits at all. Neither did they wear any kind of clothing, protective or decorative.

They were naked to the void.

But that was not all. So bizarre were the space travellers in appearance that it was some moments before Amara could confirm that they were in fact human. She focused the screen on one specimen to examine it closely. Like its brethren, it had been extensively modified by deep surgery and the incorporation of artificial organs. Embedded in its skull was a turret-like device which she guessed was connected directly to the brain. The eyes were hidden by the black goggles which seemed to be riveted into the eye-sockets. The nose had been removed.

She moved the screen’s cursor down to the torso. The chest had been replaced entirely by a metal box-like structure. Likewise the abdominal wall was substituted for by a flexible corrugated shield, making it resemble the abdomen of some type of grub. Amara could imagine the problems of pressure and temperature involved in adapting people to an interplanetary environment. Below the abdomen, however, hung an incongruous indication that the creature was fundamentally human, and male. The genitals had been left intact and floated flaccid and loose.

The mixing of man and machine continued. From limbs, backs and sides projected an assortment of devices and turrets. Amara swung the cursor to other parts of the raft. The modified men were far from being identical to one another. The machine-organs they incorporated varied from individual to individual, as though a division of function existed among them. Some torsos were transfixed by lateral shafts in an eerie travesty of crucifixion. Other specimens were made to seem even less human than their fellows by the elaboration of their cuirasses and metal pipes. As the raft jetted through space the modified men clung to handholds so as to avoid being thrown off by the weak gravity the acceleration generated.

And all were naked – all but one. The exception, a burly figure wrapped in a voluminous brown habit or gown, his head hidden by a deep cowl, stood in the centre of the vehicle while those around him kept a respectful distance.

On the raft, too, was additional equipment that might have been primitive artillery, radar and the like.

Finally Estru took a deep breath and let it out in a loud sigh. ‘Wow. How do you relate this?’

‘It’s fairly obvious, isn’t it?’ Amara responded excitedly. ‘What we have here is a space culture in the real meaning of the term. People adapted to living in space, just as you and I live in an atmospheric medium. The giant suit was one answer. This is another. We’ll call it Type Two,’ she added, for the benefit of the recorder. ‘Modified men, rather than ensheathed, protected men.’

‘Evidently they’ve solved the breathing problem,’ Estru said sardonically, focusing on one of the modified men again. ‘They’ve fixed it so that they don’t have to breathe.’