SHOCK ABSORBER
BY E. G. VON WALD
Illustrated by van Dongen
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding ScienceFiction June 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence thatthe U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
A man acts on what he believes the facts are, not on the facts. Helives or dies by what the facts are. Now sometimes you don't havetime to correct a man's beliefs, yet he must act correctly....
The aging little psychologist looked down at the captain's insignia onhis sleeve and scowled.
"I know it's a lousy, fouled-up situation, commander," he said withevident irony. "You speak of discipline. Well, it's bad enough here onMars, where a junior officer like you feels free to argue with a fullcaptain like me, but out there with the fleet, discipline is nowvirtually nonexistent."
He looked up again and quickly added, "Oh, of course there is adiscipline of a sort, and in its own way it is quite effective. Strict,too, as you will find. But it has few of the marks of the militaryacademy, of which the regular officers were so fond. Perhaps that wasthe reason why they let the situation get away from them, and why we arein charge of it now."
"I still think—" the commander started, but he was interrupted again.
"I know what you think, commander. You can forget it. It's wishfulthinking and we cannot permit such daydreaming in our precariouscondition. Face the facts as they exist in the present. After we kickthe aliens out of our solar system, maybe we can go back to the oldideas again. Maybe. I'm not even very sure of that. But as for now, thecharacteristic of despair is the lowest common denominator among thecombat patrols, and we therefore have mutinies, disobedience of orders,defections of every variety. That is a real situation, and it willpersist until we can induce the men to accept tactical leadership thatcan cope with the enemy.
"Actually, it is not very remarkable that this situation developed.Strategy is still a rational computable quantity, but the actual tacticsof fighting is something else entirely. The aliens have an intellectualresponse that is in full truth alien to us. It simply cannot becomprehended rationally by a human being, although they manage to guesspretty well the responses of our own fighters. Naturally, the result hasbeen that in the past our losses were almost ninety per cent whenever apatrol actually engaged in a firefight with the enemy.
"Fortunately, the aliens are much too far from their home to possessanything like the number of personnel and other resources that we have.Otherwise, they would have beaten us long ago. Completely wiped us out.And all because an ordinary, intelligent human being cannot learn anypatterns by which the aliens operate, and by which he can fight themsuccessfully."
"I know that," the commander muttered. "I spent plenty of time out therebefore I got tapped for this new branch of service." He rubbed the moistpalms of his hands together nervously.
"Certainly you did," the captain acknowledged absently. Then hecontinued his explanation. "Fortunately, there was a small body ofinformation on extra-rational mental faculties that had been developedover the past century, and as soon as we expanded it sufficiently, wewere able to form this new branch of service you now belong to. Butunfortunately, some idiot in the Information Service released apopularization of the data on the new branch. That was ill-advised. Theveterans who had survived so far had their own way of accounting fo