Radio Free Albemuth

The satellite has done it before - two thousand years ago, to be exact. It didn't work out that time. The receivers were eventually destroyed and the plasmatic life forms escaped into the atmosphere, taking the receivers" energy with them.

"You yourself personally were invaded by a plasmatic life form sent in energy form to take control of you and direct your actions. We, the members of the organization, are receptor sites for these plasmatic life forms from the home planets, a sort of collective brain - that's what we now consist of, to our own advantage. They are coming in a very small number, however, for the purpose of helping us; this is not a mass invasion but rather a small, highly selective one. It was with great deliberation that you were picked out as a receptor site; I was, too. Without this possession we could not succeed. We may not succeed anyhow."

"Succeed at what?"

"Dislodging Ferris Fremont."

Then that is a major goal."

"Yes." She nodded. "A major goal here, in the limited terms of this planet. You have become a composite entity, part human and part - well, they have no name. Being energy, they merge together, split apart, and re-form into their composite form, as a band in the atmospheres of their home planets. They are highly evolved atmospheric spirits who once had material bodies. They are very old; this is why, when your theoleptic-like experience began, you had the impression of a very ancient person seizing possession of you, with ancient memories."

"Yes," I said.

"You thought it was a human being who had died," Sadassa said. "Didn't you? I thought so too when it happened to me. I imagined all sorts of things - I tried out every theory in the book. Valis let us - "

"I made up that word," I broke in.

"You were given that word; it was placed in your head.

It is how we all refer to him. Of course it isn't his name; it is merely a label, an analysis of his properties. Valis allows us an interval in which to formulate theories acceptable to our own minds in order to minimize the shock. Eventually, when we are ready, we are given the truth. It is a hard blow to take, Nick, to discover that Earth is in the process of being selectively invaded; it conjures up horrific scenes of Martian insects, tall as buildings, landing and kicking over the Golden Gate Bridge. But this is not like that; this is for our benefit. It is selective, cautious, and considerate, and its only antagonist is our own antagonist."

"Will these plasmatic life forms leave after Fremont is destroyed?" I asked.

"Yes. They've come several times before in the past, given help and knowledge - medical knowledge in particular - and departed. They are our protectors, Nick; they come when we need them and then go away."

"It fits what I already know," I said. I found that my body was trembling, as if I were cold. "Can I have the waitress bring me a drink?" I asked Sadassa.

"Of course. If you have enough money, I'd like another. A margarita."

I ordered two margaritas.

"Well," I said as we sat sipping our drinks, "it's a lot easier for me now. I don't have to convince you."

"I already have the material written out," Sadassa said.

"What material?" I said, and then I understood. To be inserted as subliminal information on the record album. "Oh," I said, startled. "Can I see it?"

"I don't have it with me. I'll give it to you during the next few days. It's to go in an album you expect to sell well; you can have anyone record it, preferably one of your most popular artists. It should be, if at all possible, a hit record. This project has been building for years, Sick. For ten or twelve years. It must not misfire."

"What is the message like?" I asked.

"You'll see it. In time." She smiled. "It reads like nothing at all."

"But do you know what's really in it?"

"No," Sadassa sard. "Not completely. It's a song about „party time." It goes something like, „Come to the party." It sounds of course like a fun party; you know. Then later the vocal line goes, „Join the party." The singer says, „Everybody join the „party." And a subtrack goes, „Is everybody at the party? Is everybody present at the party?" Only if you listen carefully, they're saying, „Is everybody president at the party" at the same time the word „president" is said - repeated, in fact, by an ensemble answer: „President, president, president, join -joined - the party," and so forth. I could make out that part. But the rest I couldn't."

"Wow," I said. It terrified me; I could see how the sound-on-sound would be dubbed in as voice override.

"But this record," Sadassa said, "which you at Progressive will create and release, contains only half the information. There is another record in production; I don't know who by or where, but Valis will synchronize its release with yours, and together the information bits on the two records will add up to the total message. For instance, a song on the other record might begin, „In nineteen hundred and forty-one," which was the year Fremont teamed up with the Communist Party. Alone, that figure means nothing; but the DJs will be playing a track on first the Progressive disc and then the other one, and eventually people will be hearing all the information run together as a single total message. Random chance will join the two halves together on station after station."

"We will wind up with people walking along humming, „The president joined the Party in 1941"?" I said.

"Something like that, yes."

"Anything more?"

" „What a grand chick,"" Sadassa said.

"Beg pardon?"

""What a grand chick." Shortened in the song to „Grand chick" or „A grand chick." Except that the backup vocals will occasionally change it from „A grand chick" to „Aramchek." Consciously, people listening will continue to construe the words as „A grand chick," but on an unconscious level they will absorb the altered information. It goes back to the famous -"

"I know what it goes back to," I said. "The famous LP track still selling in the millions with the „Smoke dope, smoke dope, everybody smoke dope" backup vocal subtrack."

She laughed her throaty laugh. "Right."

"Ferris Fremont knows about the satellite, does he?" I asked.

"They've guessed. Guessed right. They've been searching for it, and now of course Georgi Moyashka has located it, in cooperation with our own stations. Between the US and the USSR, Aramchek - the satellite - has been pinpointed. The satellite that Moyashka is sending up is of course armed. It will „accidentally" explode, taking the Aramchek satellite with it."

"Can another satellite be dispatched?" I asked. "From Albemuth?"

Sadassa said, "It takes thousands of years."

Stu

"One is coming. It will arrive long after every human alive today on this planet is dead. The Aramchek satellite presently in our sky has been there since the time of the great Egyptian Empire, since the time of Moses. Remember the burning bush?"

I nodded. I knew the sensation of phosphene activity, blinding my vision: the manifestation of unending fire. We had been helped in our fight against slavery for a long time. But now the days of the satellite were numbered. The Russians could get a satellite up in - suddenly I realized: they've probably had one on the launch pad, waiting. As the final stage of a rocket, all in place. All they have to do is program its route.

"Liftoff," Sadassa said, as if reading my thoughts, "will be at the end of this week. And then the satellite dies. The help and information cease."

"How can you be so calm about it?" I said.

"I'm always calm," Sadassa said. "I taught myself to be calm. We've known for months, that this was coming. We have the information we need - we have all we're going to get. It should be enough; the Aramchek satellite lasted until its work was done. There are enough of the plasmatic life forms here on Earth to - "