Subjectivity Read online

crystal it is," said Lin Pey, waving his delicate orientalhands, "like jade as transparent as crystal."

  "There is a camel in the circle," said Lazar, "a brown camel."

  "Let's all try and see the camel together," said Vera Galindezsharply. "Tell us what it looks like, Lazar."

  "It's brown, it's the two-humped kind, it has a two-foot tail."

  "And big feet," said Lin Pey.

  "A stupid face," said Donner.

  "Very stupid."

  "Your camel is a great bore," said the stocky, scowling Bram Daker.

  "Let's have something else," said Joby.

  "Okay," replied Brunei, "now someone else tell what they see."

  "A lizard," said Linda Tobias, a strange, somber girl, inclined to themorbid.

  "A lizard?" squeaked Ingrid Solin.

  "No," said Lin Pey, "a dragon. A green dragon, with a forked redtongue...."

  "He has little useless wings," said Lazar.

  "He is totally oblivious to us," said Vera.

  Brunei saw the dragon. It was five feet long, green and scaly. It wasa conventional dragon, except for the most bovine expression in itseyes....

  Yes, he thought, the dragon is _here_. But the greater part of himknew that it was an illusion.

  How long would this go on?

  "It's _good_ that we see the same things," said Marsha. "Let's alwayssee the same things...."

  "Yes."

  "Yes!"

  "Now a mountain, a tall blue mountain."

  "With snow on the peak."

  "Yes, and clouds...."

  * * * * *

  _One week out_:

  Oliver Brunei stepped into the common room. Lin Pey, Vera, and Lazarwere sitting together, on what appeared to be a huge purple toadstool.

  But that's _my_ hallucination, thought Brunei. _At least, I think itis._

  "Hello Ollie," said Lazar.

  "Hi. What're you doing?"

  "We're looking at the dragon again," said Vera. "Join us?"

  Brunei thought of the dragon for a moment. The toadstool disappeared,and the by-now-familiar bovine dragon took its place. In the last fewdays, they had discovered that if any two of them concentrated onsomething long enough to "materialize" it, anyone else who wanted tocould see it in a moment.

  "What's so interesting about that silly dragon?" said Brunei.

  "How about the camel?" said Lazar.

  The dragon turned into the two-humped brown camel.

  "Phooey!" said Lin Pey.

  "O.K.," said Vera, "so what do you want?"

  Lin Pey thought for a moment.

  "How about a meadow?" he said. "A soft lawn of green grass, the sky isblue, and there are a few white clouds...."

  "Clover is blooming," said Lazar. "Smell it."

  Brunei reclined on the soft green grass. The smell of the earthbeneath him was warm and moist. "A few apple trees here and there," hesaid, and there was shade.

  "Look over the hill!" said Lazar. "There's the dragon!"

  "Will you _please_ get rid of that dragon?" snapped Brunei.

  "O.K., Ollie, O.K."

  * * * * *

  _One month out_:

  "Get out of the way!" yelled Brunei. He gave the dragon a kick. Itmooed plaintively.

  "That wasn't very nice, Ollie," said Lazar.

  "That dragon is always underfoot," said Brunei. "Why don't you get ridof it?"

  "I've taken a liking to it," said Lazar. "Besides, what about yourSaint Bernard?"

  "This ship is getting too cluttered up with everyone'shallucinations," said Brunei. "Ever since ... when was it, a weekago?... ever since we've been able to conjure 'em up by ourselves, andmake everyone else see 'em."

  Daker dematerialised the woman on his lap. "Why don't we gettogether?" he said.

  "Get together?"

  "Yes. We could agree on an environment. Look at this common room forexample. What a mess! Here, it's a meadow, there it's a beach, apalace, a boudoir."

  "You mean we should make it the same for all of us?" asked Lazar.

  "Sure. We can have whatever we want in our cabins, but let's make somesense out of the common room."

  "Good idea," said Brunei. "I'll call the others."

  * * * * *

  _Three months out_:

  Brunei stepped through the stuccoed portal, and into the centralSpanish garden. He noticed that the sky was blue, with a few fleecywhite clouds.

  But then, the weather was always good. They had agreed on it.

  Lazar, Ingrid, Lin Pey and Vera were sitting on the green lawnsurrounding the fountain.

  Daker, Joby, Linda and Donner preferred the shade, and lounged againstthe white arabesqued wall which enclosed the garden on four sides,broken only by four arched entrance portals.

  The garden had been a good compromise, thought Brunei. Something foreveryone. Fresh air and sun-shine, but also the mental securityoffered by the walls, which also provided shade for those who wantedit. A fountain, a few palm trees, grass, flowers, even the littleformal Japanese rock garden that Lin Pey had insisted on.

  "Hello, Ollie," said Lazar. "Nice day."

  "Isn't it always?" replied Brunei. "How about a little shower?"

  "Maybe tomorrow."

  "I notice a lot of sleeping people today," said Brunei.

  "Yes," said Lin Pey. "By now, the garden seems to be able to maintainitself."

  "You think it has a separate existence?" asked Ingrid.

  "Of course not," said Vera. "Our subconscious minds are maintainingit. It's probably here when we're all asleep."

  "No way of telling _that_," said Brunei. "Besides, how can it existwhen we're asleep, when it doesn't really exist to begin with?"

  "Semantics, Ollie, semantics."

  Brunei took a bottle of Omnidrene out of his pocket. "Time to chargeup the old batteries again," he said.

  He passed out the pills.

  "I notice Marsha is still in her cabin."

  "Yeah," said Lazar, "she keeps to herself a lot. No great--"

  Just then, Marsha burst into the garden, screaming: "Make it go away!Make it go away!"

  Behind her slithered a gigantic black snake, with a head as big as ahorse's, and bulging red eyes.

  "I thought we agreed to leave our private hallucinations in ourcabins," snapped Brunei.

  "I tried! I tried! I _don't want_ it around, but it won't go away! Dosomething!"

  Ten feet of snake had already entered the garden. The thing seemedendless.

  "Take it easy," said Lazar. "Let's all concentrate and think it away."

  They tried to erase the snake, but it just rolled its big red eyes.

  "That won't work," said Vera. "Her subconscious is still fighting us.Part of her must _want_ the snake here. We've _all_ got to be togetherto erase it."

  Marsha began to cry. The snake advanced another two feet.

  "Oh, quiet!" rasped Lazar. "Ollie, do I have your permission to bringmy dragon into the garden? He'll make short work of the snake."

  Brunei scowled. "You and your dragon.... Oh, maybe it'll work."

  Instantly, the green dragon was in the garden. But it was no longerfive feet long and bovine.

  It was a good twelve feet long, with cold reptilian eyes and bigyellow fangs.

  It took one look at the snake, opened its powerful jaws, and belched ahuge tongue of orange flame.

  The serpent was incinerated. It disappeared.

  Brunei was trembling. "What happened, Lazar?" he said. "That's not thesame stupid little dragon."

  "Hah ... hah...." squeaked Lazar. "He's ... uh ... grown...."

  Brunei suddenly noticed that Lazar was ashen. He also noticed that thedragon was turning in their direction.

  "Get it out of here, Lazar! Get it out of here!"

  Lazar nodded. The dragon flickered and went pale, but it was over aminute before it disappeared entirely.

  * * *
* *

  _Six months out_:

  _Things_ wandered the passageways and haunted the cabins. Marsha'ssnake was back. There was Lazar's dragon, which seemed to grow largerevery day. There was also a basilisk, a pterodactyl, a vampire batwith a five-foot wingspread, an old-fashioned red spade-tailed demonand other assorted horrors.

  Even Oliver Brunei's friendly Saint Bernard had grown to monstroussize,