INTRODUCTION
"Nyctalopes" was published in Más Allá #8, Jan 1954 and was illustrated by Dominguez. It is the third of three stories that make up "The Crimes of the LIO" series. We recommend reading the first and second entries in the series, "Protonickel" (#6, Nov 1953) and "Nemobius Fasciatus" (#7, Dec 1953) before reading this one.
For further information on this era of Argentine science fiction, see Rachel Haywood Ferreira's "Más Allá, El Eternauta, and the Dawn of the Golden Age of Latin American Science Fiction (1953-59)" and "How Latin America Saved the World and Other Forgotten Futures".
For complete scans of Más Allá, including the illustrations, see: https://ahira.com.ar/revistas/mas-alla-de-la-ciencia-y-de-la-fantasia/
NYCTALOPES
The posting, which appeared in the morning's largest newspaper, read something like this:
A. f. res. l., e. k. elec, req. CV to LIO, which according to Nogler (the director of the LIO) and the editor of the posting in question, was intended to mean:
"Assistant for research laboratory, extensive knowledge of electronics required. Send CV to L.I.O."
And Nogler's theory of putting it in such a concise form was that if potential job applicants weren't smart enough to figure it out, then the lab had no interest in such people either.
The theory seemed very attractive, but the cruel reality made it shake like a flan when Gladys (Nogler's personal secretary) opened the first of the three hundred letters that arrived, and one could see that the general interpretation had been along these lines:
"Apartment for residential living, enormous kitchen (electric), send required credit verification to LIO"
And the respondants asked for all sorts of details about prices and locations.
But Nogler was a man of luck, and even his failures were successes. So it happened that letter number 261 (Gladys could even count Nogler's sneezes from her excessive thoroughness) turned out to be a legitimate candidate for the position offered. He answered it correctly, demonstrating all his personal credentials and his knowledge of electronics.
Nogler paraded Letter No. 261 triumphantly around the laboratory as a confirmation of the exactitude of his theory, and this served to somewhat calm the group of "lieros" who were noisily celebrating the alluvium of alkylating correspondence.
To tell the truth, and without this in any way tarnishing the glory of Nogler's theories, it was Gladys who informed one of her admirers of the vacancy. The very astute woman advised him to answer the posting as if he'd interpreted it correctly.
And so the youth did.
But, we repeat, Nogler was a lucky man, and Cupídez (the one who answered the posting) turned out to be, in every aspect, the most extraordinary person who walked over the fallen capacitors scattered on the floors of the LIO (there was always a large quantity of these).
Cupídez was extremely intelligent, and logically, failed the mandatory Orselec mental test. On the other hand, he possessed an enormous mass of scientific knowledge along with a great deal of practical experience. And, to complete the picture, we can say in passing that he also had a tender heart with a very low flash point (according to Pensky-Martens). He was habitually and simultaneously in love, or in the process of becoming so, with several maidens at once; and his colleagues promptly learned how to calculate the number of candidates on duty by the hourly frequency of their languid sighs. (In the laboratory, everything was measured).
* * *
THIS new "point", according to the laboratory lexicon, was destined to fill the void left by Puntualini, easy to fill physically, but not so much intellectually; which why Nogler administered to him an entrance examination on infrared noctovisors.
The examination was taken in the presence of Gladys, El Petiso Trapisóndez, Oscar, Manuelski and others for numerous reasons:
When the nosy El Petiso, with his characteristic petulance, came forward to ask him if he by chance knew or heard anything about noctovisors, and if so, if he could tell him...
El Petiso had not even finished the word "noctovisors" when Cupídez was already bombarding him with data, formulas and figures, and the conversation evolved to the front of the blackboard, where he sketched out the circuits.
He did everything so quickly that at times, due to the persistence of images on the retina, it seemed like two people, possibly more, were taking the examination simultaneously.
- "The American noctovisor system" - Cupídez said - "uses the 1P25 image tube as described by Morton and Flory, and has a Cs-O-Ag..." - here he interrupted himself for a half-second, due to a sigh directed at Gladys - "semitransparent photocathode and a corresponding Wratten filter; the method is completely electronic, it works with a tension of..." - a pause for one and a half seconds, due to two sighs, one long and one short - "4,000 to 5,000 volts, when increased by fifty percent, the electrons are focused on a willemite screen, or possibly the zinc orthosilicate developed by the laboratory's craniums, which is notably barium" - a failed attempt at sigh -; "but on the other hand, the English method, derived from Hols and his collaborators, is based on a uniform electronic field, which has the advantage of..."
And he continued this for a long while, exhaustively expounding on the topic while sighing in Gladys' direction with a sufficiently regulated frequency.
Through all of this, El Petiso Trapisóndez's face had passed through all the colors of the spectrum, including green, and at that moment, he was shining in a beautiful scarlet tone that was already turning into ochre.
Cupídez allowed himself the insolence of knowing just as much, or more even, than him on the subject in question, and that was despite the fact that El Petiso, with his usual modesty, considered himself the greatest in electronics and all the other fields!
* * *
The problem that was occupying the laboratory at that time, and which was the subject of Cupídez's famous scientific-amorous examination, was, translated into a vulgar romance, the following: They wanted to construct various devices that could be adapted for use in cars and trucks, which would allow these vehicle's drivers to see in complete darkness and through the densest of fog, without using headlights (which are useless anyways in the event of fog), and which would have the advantage of not blinding anyone coming from the opposite direction, because they use infrared rays that are far outside the visible spectrum; that is, with a long wavelength.
Similar devices were already built at the end of the Second World War for military usage, but the ones that LIO wanted to produce were intended for civilian usage, designed primarily to solve the problem of fog.
The work had fallen rather behind due to the lack of Caldero and Puntualini and, additionally, because the laboratory personnel refused (for their own reasons) to collaborate with El Petiso, who was in charge of said devices.
Nogler's initial idea had been to assign Cupídez as El Petiso's assistant; but Nogler, who was had arrived at the "maximus maximorum" of his periodic "eruption" of ideas (both good and otherwise), decided in light of Cupídez's brilliant examination, to put him in competition with El Petiso by assigning him the same task simultaneously.
His theory was (he had a theory for everything) that the rivalry would speed up the manufacture of the noctovisors and, on the other hand (using a widespread phrase from Manuelski), Nogler was also getting the urge to diminish El Petiso's gas combustion columns, that is, to lower his smoke.[Translator's note: "lower his smoke", fig. "take him down a peg" or something similar]
* * *
Some time passed, during which Cupídez and Trapisóndez worked "full uranium ahead" (the expression "full steam ahead" was no longer used at the LIO), and the devices were almost ready to be tested. But El Petiso, to compensate for Cupídez's greater speed, had to work nights as well, and, as such, his devices, although just as excellent as those of his rival, were considerably more expensive to produce.
Trapisóndez felt increasingly dwarfed by his competitor, and the flux in his anger towards him expanded in geometric proportion.
And, as (one can easily comprehend) such great anger couldn't be housed for long in a body as small as El Petiso's without blowing the fuses out, Trapisóndez's ideas took a dangerous turn.
He'll destroy Cupídez's devices, using the same infrared rays that his rival so skillfully handled; and if in the process some unfortunate accident happened to him... Well, he was hardly in a position to focus on such tiny details.
* * *
ONE night, El Petiso was finishing up mounting his one of his devices in a car owned by the laboratory, while Cupídez had already finished his several days ago now, and with several girls, and always sighing, he was driving around in his car, under the pretext of testing the new system.
That night, Trapisóndez, finding himself alone in the laboratory, took the opportunity to work on his special project, which was aimed at making his most hated enemy breathe "the last sigh". He would do this by means of a special projector, the very same that El Petiso himself designated a "monoscopic tube infrared projector." This device, with such an impressive name, in reality resembled the magic lantern projectors used by children, and projected any image or photograph that was placed inside of it, with the major difference that the projection was composed of infrared rays, that is to say, it was invisible without the help of a noctovisor.
The plan that El Petiso had devised was quite ingenious: Cupídez went out at night to test his devices, driving his car on the dangerous road that led to the laboratory; Trapisóndez had taken a photograph of that road, but on a section that was straight and flat, and intended to mount that photo inside his monoscopic tube. He would place the tube on a tripod with its battery, and install the assembly right before the road's most dangerous curves, hiding it among the trees that were lining it. The monoscopic tube would be focused on the route that Cupídez would take at night, guiding his car with the help of the noctovisor and with the large headlights turned off. But on the screen of Cupídez's noctovisor, he wouldn't see the dangerous curve in the road, but rather the photograph's false image projected by the monoscope tube of the straight and flat section of the road! An accident was inevitable, as the dangerous curve led to an embankment more than thirty meters high! On the other hand, his monoscopic tube was harmless to other cars with ordinary headlights, because it projected this image with invisible rays; thus, it would choose its prey with infallible precision. Trapisóndez would just happen to pass by shortly after the lamentable accident, remove the tube and destroy it to eliminate absolutely any indication he was there.
"That was all very well," thought El Petiso, "but first I need to hurry up and finish the monoscopic tube, which is still incomplete."
He needed to make the contacts that went through the tube's glass, and for this, he would use some pieces of tungsten in the form of little rods.
Trapisondez muttered to himself:
"What a fool! I forgot to bring the tungsten! Maybe there's some in the laboratory."
He looked around him. On a table nearby, he found some thin, dark, heavy rods, which he immediately recognized.
"What luck! Tungsten! In 0.3mm diameter! A bit fine, but it'll be serviceable all the same."
Using a gas and oxygen torch, he quickly installed the tungsten contacts in the glass. He installed the photograph of the road inside the newly finished tube, mounted the whole assembly on a small tripod equipped with a battery, and left the laboratory in search of his car. Finally, he installed the tripod in front of the automobile, turned on his noctovisor, and was pleased at the clarity of the image he observed.
It seemed like he was seeing the road on the noctovisor, but it was actually the projected photograph!
Cupídez had no possible escape!
Trapisóndez loaded the tripod into his car, started off and sped fairly quickly down the road. Fog had risen, but El Petiso didn't consider that of any importance: on his noctovisor screen, despite the fog, the road was projected very clearly. The devices worked very well. He was proud of having built them. Within a few hours, Cupídez and his noctovisors would be destroyed, and in turn, his own system will win out and will be the one that will be adopted.
He continued moving forward at a steady pace. The curve where he planned to install the monoscopic tube must be close now. Everything was going according to plan. However, a dark feeling of fear was gripping him, and it seemed like his subconscious wanted to remind him of something.
He looked intently at the screen of his noctovisor. The road was still straight and clear of all obstacles.
Again, he felt the sensation of forgetting some detail...
The crash against the railing sharpened his senses!
As he and his car fell into the void, he remembered clearly:
"0.3mm Tungsten on the next table, and Cupídez was working on it!!"
They both had the exact same idea, but Cupídez was the first to implement it.
El Petiso had met his end.
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