Dennis R. Bailey

Tin Woodman

Div Harlthor is a misfit by anybody’sdefinition, a young man “gifted” with such strong psychic powers that he cannot bear human contact and is happiest living in isolation. But Div is also the one human being whose powers may be strong enough to reach out and contact a mysterious alien creature found drifting in deep space. He was taken into space against his will, sent out against his will to examine the great creature with his mind–and no one could have predicted what would happen when his will and that of the alien were joined ...

First Contact

         The vu-tank came alive suddenly, focused on Tin Woodman. Close enough to allow a human figure in a bright yellow pressure suit to be seen drifting along the side of the alien, gloved hand pressed lightly against the living tissue of the hull, as if caressing it. Near Div, an opening was forming in the substance—Tin Woodman’s flesh drawing back like the iris of a human eye. There was no mistaking Div’s intention. He was going to enter Tin Woodman.

         Mora watched as the metal claws of the spider rose up close in the foreground of the holographic image, then extended toward Tin Woodman. Under Darsen’s command the spider was moving in on Div rapidly. It frightened her.

         Mora locked her right hand around Darsen’s left wrist. She drove her mind, knifelike, into his mind.

         Screaming, Darsen leaped out of his chair, away from the console.

         She probed deeper, feeling no sympathy; only the echoes of Darsen’s pain through her empathic faculties.

         “Look at me,” she demanded.

         Darsen angled his face upward, eyes bulging. He gasped for breath, his hand grabbing futilely at his head, as though to break the link with Mora through physical force.

         “Look at yourself,” she shouted, making her mind a mirror. All the hatred, the fear of Darsen rose to the surface. “Look at the horror, at the pain you’ve caused. Look at yourself as another sees you!”

         Darsen shrieked.

Review Quotes:  “You might sum this up as a mixture of Moby Dick, The Caine Mutiny, and ‘Star Trek’ ... a good adventure story.” —Publishers Weekly

         “I read the book through at a single sitting ... a remarkably good job.” —Charles Sheffield