{"id":6928,"date":"2016-08-29T22:20:28","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T05:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/?p=6928"},"modified":"2016-08-29T22:29:55","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T05:29:55","slug":"flashback-nithrid-methodology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/?p=6928","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: “Nithrid Methodology”"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>ne morning, Professor Zimmerman<\/a> is running the nithrid through its physical when a bull with wings and the head of a man interferes.<\/p>\n

It lands amidst billowing dust in the clearing.<\/p>\n

It is a flayed bull. It is terribly bleeding. But its voice is polite. It says, \u201cPlease back away.\u201d<\/p>\n

And maybe Professor Zimmerman is afraid, or maybe heroic, I don\u2019t know, but he doesn\u2019t. He stands there, as the creature draws closer. He even stands straighter; until the nithrid, it interferes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK,\u201d the nithrid says. \u201cHe\u2019s working for Gulley.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is easy to read the bull\u2019s expressions, because it has a human face. The bull has no idea what the nithrid is talking about. The bull is not sure why it should be reassured by the name Gulley, but grasps that she believes that it should.<\/p>\n

All of this is only visible, of course, because the bull has a human face. It is quite likely that it would have been utterly unreadable if it had just been a bull. That\u2019s why regular bulls win most every poker tournament that they can get into, and if they lose, it\u2019s because they have terrible hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not OK,\u201d the bull says, because the nithrid is attached to hundreds of wires, and has one eyelid clamped back, and it doesn\u2019t look comfortable at all, but the nithrid is reassuring:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

And after it departs, the nithrid says, \u201cWe were together. On the farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it some sort of natural phenomenon?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bull,\u201d says the nithrid, unnecessarily, \u201cwith the face of a man and the wings of a . . . winged thing. And it is holy. It is sacred. It is a gift to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Zimmerman begins unwiring the nithrid. \u201cYou\u2019re stable,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would Hans keep something holy?\u201d Then, with sudden, horrid realization: \u201cWhy would he SKIN it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have made the world better,\u201d says the nithrid.<\/p>\n

Professor Zimmerman raises an eyebrow.<\/p>\n

\u201c.\u00a0 . . But it didn\u2019t belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s long gone by then. It\u2019s just a dream in the distance. It\u2019s like most flying bulls that a person encounters. It\u2019s there for a time, and it bleeds. Then it\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ne morning, Professor Zimmerman is running the nithrid through its physical when a bull with wings and the head of a man interferes. It lands amidst billowing dust in the clearing. It is a flayed bull. It is terribly bleeding. But its voice is polite. It says, \u201cPlease back away.\u201d And maybe Professor Zimmerman is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"series":[48],"class_list":["post-6928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strange-encounters","series-strange-encounters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Strange-Encounter-Zimmerman-1001.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6928"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6937,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6928\/revisions\/6937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6928"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=6928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}