Transcriber's Note:

 This etext was produced from _The Counterfeit Man More Science Fiction Stories by Alan E. Nourse_ published in 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. 

Circus

"Just suppose, " said Morgan, "that I _did_ believe you. Just forargument. " He glanced up at the man across the restaurant table. "Wherewould we go from here?"

The man shifted uneasily in his seat. He was silent, staring down at hisplate. Not a strange-looking man, Morgan thought. Rather ordinary, infact. A plain face, nose a little too long, fingers a little too dainty, a suit that doesn't quite seem to fit, but all in all, a perfectlyordinary looking man. 

Maybe _too_ ordinary, Morgan thought. 

Finally the man looked up. His eyes were dark, with a hunted look intheir depths that chilled Morgan a little. "Where do we go? I don'tknow. I've tried to think it out, and I get nowhere. But you've _got_ tobelieve me, Morgan. I'm lost, I mean it. If I can't get help, I don'tknow where it's going to end. "

"I'll tell you where it's going to end, " said Morgan. "It's going to endin a hospital. A mental hospital. They'll lock you up and they'll losethe key somewhere. " He poured himself another cup of coffee and sippedit, scalding hot. "And that, " he added, "will be that. "

 * * * * *

The place was dark and almost empty. Overhead, a rotary fan swishedpatiently. The man across from Morgan ran a hand through his dark hair. "There must be some other way, " he said. "There has to be. "

"All right, let's start from the beginning again, " Morgan said. "Maybewe can pin something down a little better. You say your name isParks--right?"

The man nodded. "Jefferson Haldeman Parks, if that helps any. Haldemanwas my mother's maiden name. "

"All right. And you got into town on Friday--right?"

Parks nodded. 

"Fine. Now go through the whole story again. What happened first?"

The man thought for a minute. "As I said, first there was a fall. Abouttwenty feet. I didn't break any bones, but I was shaken up and limping. The fall was near the highway going to the George Washington Bridge. Igot over to the highway and tried to flag down a ride. "

"How did you feel? I mean, was there anything strange that you noticed?"

"_Strange!_" Parks' eyes widened. "I--I was speechless. At first Ihadn't noticed too much--I was concerned with the fall, and whether Iwas hurt or not. I didn't really think about much else until I hobbledup to that highway and saw those cars coming. Then I could hardlybelieve my eyes. I thought I was crazy. But a car stopped and asked meif I was going into the city, and I knew I wasn't crazy. "

Morgan's mouth took a grim line. "You understood the language?"

"Oh, yes. I don't see how I could have, but I did. We talked all the wayinto New York--nothing very important, but we understood each other. Hisspeech had an odd sound, but--"

Morgan nodded. "I know, I noticed. What did you do when you got to NewYork?"

"Well, obviously, I needed money. I had gold coin. There had been no wayof knowing if it would be useful, but I'd taken it on chance. I tried touse it at a newsstand first, and the man wouldn't touch it. Asked me ifI thought I was the U. S. Treasury or something. When he saw that I wasserious, he sent me to a money lender, a hock shop, I think he calledit. So I found a place--"

"Let me see the coins. "

Parks dropped two small gold discs on the table. They were perfectlysmooth and perfectly round, tapered by wear to a thin blunt edge. Therewas no design on them, and no printing. Morgan looked up at the mansharply. "What did you get for these?"

Parks shrugged. "Too little, I suspect. Two dollars for the small one, five for the larger. "

"You should have gone to a bank. "

"I know that now. I didn't then. Naturally, I assumed that witheverything else so similar, principles of business would also besimilar. "

Morgan sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Well, then what?"

Parks poured some more coffee. His face was very pale, Morgan thought, and his hands trembled as he raised the cup to his lips. Fright? Maybe. Hard to tell. The man put down the cup and rubbed his forehead with theback of his hand. "First, I went to the mayor's office, " he said. "Ikept trying to think what anyone at home would do in my place. Thatseemed a good bet. I asked a policeman where it was, and then I wentthere. "

"But you didn't get to see him. "

"No. I saw a secretary. She said the mayor was in conference, and that Iwould have to have an appointment. She let me speak to another man, oneof the mayor's assistants. "

"And you told him?"

"No. I wanted to see the mayor himself. I thought that was the bestthing to do. I waited for a couple of hours, until another assistantcame along and told me flatly that the mayor wouldn't see me unless Istated my business first. " He drew in a deep breath. "So I stated it. And then I was gently but firmly ushered back into the street again. "

"They didn't believe you, " said Morgan. 

"Not for a minute. They laughed in my face. "

Morgan nodded. "I'm beginning to get the pattern. So what did you donext?"

"Next I tried the police. I got the same treatment there, only theyweren't so gentle. They wouldn't listen either. They muttered somethingabout cranks and their crazy notions, and when they asked me where Ilived, they thought I was--what did they call it?--a wise guy! Told meto get out and not come back with any more wild stories. "

"I see, " said Morgan. 

Jefferson Parks finished his last bite of pie and pushed the plate away. "By then I didn't know quite what to do. I'd been prepared for almostanything excepting this. It was frightening. I tried to rationalize it, and then I quit trying. It wasn't that I attracted attention, oranything like that, quite the contrary. Nobody even looked at me, unlessI said something to them. I began to look for things that were_different_, things that I could show them, and say, see, this provesthat I'm telling the truth, look at it--" He looked up helplessly. 

"And what did you find?"

"Nothing. Oh, little things, insignificant little things. Yourcalendars, for instance. Naturally, I couldn't understand your frame ofreference. And the coinage, you stamp your coins; we don't. Andcigarettes. We don't have any such thing as tobacco. " The man gave ashort laugh. "And your house dogs! We have little animals that look morelike rabbits than poodles. But there was nothing any more significantthan that. Absolutely nothing. "

"Except yourself, " Morgan said. 

"Ah, yes. I thought that over carefully. I looked for differences, obvious ones. I couldn't find any. You can see that, just looking at me. So I searched for more subtle things. Skin texture, fingerprints, bonestructure, body proportion. I still couldn't find anything. Then I wentto a doctor. "

Morgan's eyebrows lifted. "Good, " he said. 

Parks shrugged tiredly. "Not really. He examined me. He practically tookme apart. I carefully refrained from saying anything about who I was orwhere I came from; just said I wanted a complete physical examination, and let him go to it. He was thorough, and when he finished he patted meon the back and said, 'Parks, you've got nothing to worry about. You'reas fine, strapping a specimen of a healthy human being as I've everseen. ' And that was that. " Parks laughed bitterly. "I guess I wassupposed to be happy with the verdict, and instead I was ready to knockhim down. It was idiotic, it defied reason, it was infuriating. "

Morgan nodded sourly. "Because you're not a human being, " he said. 

"That's right. I'm not a human being at all. "

 * * * * *

"How did you happen to pick this planet, or this sun?" Morgan askedcuriously. "There must have been a million others to choose from. "

Parks unbuttoned his collar and rubbed his stubbled chin unhappily. "Ididn't make the choice. Neither did anyone else. Travel by warp is alittle different from travel by the rocket you fiction writers make somuch of. With a rocket vehicle you pick your destination, make yourcalculations, and off you go. The warp is blind flying, strictly blind. We send an unmanned scanner ahead. It probes around more or lesshit-or-miss until it locates something, somewhere, that looks habitable. When it spots a likely looking place, we keep a tight beam on it andsend through a manned scout. " He grinned sourly. "Like me. If it looksgood to the scout, he signals back, and they leave the warp anchored fora sort of permanent gateway until we can get a transport beam built. Butwe can't control the directional and dimensional scope of the warp. There are an infinity of ways it can go, until we have a guide beamtransmitting from the other side. Then we can just scan a segment ofspace with the warp, and the scanner picks up the beam. "

He shook his head wearily. "We're new at it, Morgan. We've only tried afew dozen runs. We're not too far ahead of you in technology. We've beenusing rocket vehicles just like yours for over a century. That's finefor a solar system, but it's not much good for the stars. When the warpprinciple was discovered, it looked like the answer. But something wentwrong, the scanner picked up this planet, and I was coming through, andthen something blew. Next thing I knew I was falling. When I tried tomake contact again, the scanner was gone!"

"And you found things here the same as back home, " said Morgan. 

"The same! Your planet and mine are practically twins. Similar cities, similar technology, everything. The people are the same, with preciselythe same anatomy and physiology, the same sort of laws, the sameinstitutions, even compatible languages. Can't you see the importance ofit? This planet is on the other side of the universe from mine, with thefirst intelligent life we've yet encountered anywhere. But when I try totell your people that I'm a native of another star system, _they won'tbelieve me_!"

"Why should they?" asked Morgan. "You look like a human being. You talklike one. You eat like one. You act like one. What you're asking them tobelieve is utterly incredible. "

"_But it's true. _"

Morgan shrugged. "So it's true. I won't argue with you. But as I askedbefore, even if I _did_ believe you, what do you expect _me_ to do aboutit? Why pick _me_, of all the people you've seen?"

There was a desperate light in Parks' eyes. "I was tired, tired of beinglaughed at, tired of having people looking at me as though I'd lost mywits when I tried to tell them the truth. You were here, you were alone, so I started talking. And then I found out you wrote stories. " He lookedup eagerly. "I've got to get back, Morgan, somehow. My life is there, my family. And think what it would mean to both of our worlds--contactwith another intelligent race! Combine our knowledges, our technologies, and we could explore the galaxy!"

He leaned forward, his thin face intense. "I need money and I need help. I know some of the mathematics of the warp principle, know some of thedesign, some of the power and wiring principles. You have engineershere, technologists, physicists. They could fill in what I don't knowand build a guide beam. But they won't do it if they don't believe me. Your government won't listen to me, they won't appropriate any money. "

"Of course they won't. They've got a war or two on their hands, theyhave public welfare, and atomic bombs, and rockets to the moon to sinktheir money into. " Morgan stared at the man. "But what can _I_ do?"

"You can _write_! That's what you can do. You can tell the world aboutme, you can tell exactly what has happened. I know how public interestcan be aroused in my world. It must be the same in yours. "

Morgan didn't move. He just stared. "How many people have you talkedto?" he asked. 

"A dozen, a hundred, maybe a thousand. "

"And how many believed you?"

"None. "

"You mean _nobody_ would believe you?"

"_Not one soul. _ Until I talked to you. "

And then Morgan was laughing, laughing bitterly, tears rolling down hischeeks. "And I'm the one man who couldn't help you if my life dependedon it, " he gasped. 

"You believe me?"

Morgan nodded sadly. "I believe you. Yes. I think your warp brought youthrough to a parallel universe of your own planet, not to another star, but I think you're telling the truth. "

"Then you _can_ help me. "

"I'm afraid not. "

"Why not?"

"Because I'd be worse than no help at all. "

Jefferson Parks gripped the table, his knuckles white. "Why?" he criedhoarsely. "If you believe me, why can't you help me?"

Morgan pointed to the magazine lying on the table. "I write, yes, " hesaid sadly. "Ever read stories like this before?"

Parks picked up the magazine, glanced at the bright cover. "I barelylooked at it. "

"You should look more closely. I have a story in this issue. The readersthought it was very interesting, " Morgan grinned. "Go ahead, look atit. "

The stranger from the stars leafed through the magazine, stopped at apage that carried Roger Morgan's name. His eyes caught the firstparagraph and he turned white. He set the magazine down with a tremblinghand. "I see, " he said, and the life was gone out of his voice. Hespread the pages viciously, read the lines again. 

The paragraph said:

 "Just suppose, " said Martin, "that I _did_ believe you. Just for argument. " He glanced up at the man across the table. "Where do we go from here?"