"A. E. Van Vogt - The Best Of A. E. Van Vogt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

Your last letter was so slow in coming that I thought you had decided to break off the correspondence.
I was sorry to notice that you failed to enclose the photograph, puzzled by your reference to having a
relapse, and cheered by your statement that you would send it along as soon as you felt better--whatever
that means. However, the important thing is that you did write, and I respect the philosophy of your club
which asks its members not to write of pessimistic matters. We all have our own problems which we
regard as overshadowing the problems of others. Here I am in prison, doomed to spend the next 30
years tucked away from the main stream of life. Even the thought is hard on my restless spirit, though I
know I have a long life ahead of me after my release.
In spite of your friendly letter, I wonтАЩt feel that you have completely re-established contact with me
until you send the photograph.
Yours in expectation
Skander

Aurigae II
Dear Pen Pal:
The photograph arrived. As you suggest, your appearance startled me. From your description I
thought I had mentally reconstructed your body. It just goes to show that words cannot really describe an
object which has never been seen.
YouтАЩll notice that IтАЩve enclosed a photograph of myself, as I promised I would. Chunky, metallic
looking chap, am I not, very different, IтАЩll wager, than you expected? The various races with whom we
have communicated become wary of us when they discover we are highly radioactive, and that literally
we are a radioactive form of life, the only such (that we know of) in the universe. ItтАЩs been very trying to
be so isolated and, as you know, I have occasionally mentioned that I had hopes of escaping not only the
deadly imprison-ment to which I am being subjected but also the body which cannot escape.
Perhaps youтАЩll be interested in hearing how far this idea has developed. The problem involved is one of
exchange of personalities with someone else. Actually, it is not really an exchange in the accepted
meaning of the word. It is necessary to get an impress of both individuals, of their mind and of their
thoughts as well as their bodies. Since this phase is purely mechanical, it is simply a matter of taking
complete photographs and of exchanging them. By complete I mean of course every vibration must be
registered. The next step is to make sure the two photographs are exchanged, that is, that each party has
somewhere near him a complete photograph of the other. (It is already too late, Pen Pal. I have set in
motion the sub-space energy interflow between the two plates, so you might as well read on.) As I have
said it is not exactly an exchange of personalities. The original personality in each individual is suppressed,
literally pushed back out of the consciousness, and the image personality from the тАЬphotographicтАЭ plate
replaces it.
You will take with you a complete memory of your life on Earth, and I will take along memory of my
life on Aurigae. Simultaneously, the memory of the receiving body will be blurrily at our disposal. A part
of us will always be pushing up, striving to regain consciousness, but always lacking the strength to
succeed.
As soon as I grow tired of Earth, I will exchange bodies in the same way with a member of some other
race. Thirty years hence, I will be happy to reclaim my body, and you can then have whatever body I last
happened to occupy.
This should be a very happy arrangement for us both. You, with your short life expectancy, will have
out-lived all your contemporaries and will have had an interesting experience. I admit I expect to have the
better of the ex-change--but now, enough of explanation. By the time you reach this part of the letter it
will be me reading it, not you. But if any part of you is still aware, so long for now, Pen Pal. ItтАЩs been nice
having all those letters from you. I shall write you from time to time to let you know how things are going
with my tour.
Skander