"Art in the Blood"

by Brian Stableford

originally published Shadows Over Baker Street, Ballantine, 2003

Mycroft Holmes is lounging at the Diogenes Club when Holmes brings him a curious case - a seaman named John Chevaucheux, who has an unusual problem.  He reports that Captain Dan Pye, of the ship Goshen, a man apparently known and important to Mycroft, has died - from a curse.  Holmes shows a small figurine, with humanoid, fish, and octopoid features to Mycroft, as Chevaucheux tells his story.

He shipped out under Captain Pye.  Also on the voyage was a man named Sam Rockaby, who came from a small village in the South East of England, where the old houses and buildings often have grotesque faces carved into the walls.  Rockaby claims to be of "older" blood, and to have knowledge of the origins of these faces, and other strangenesses of the regions, including those of "the Elder Gods" and "the Others". 

The voyage is a difficult one, and the crew are beset by seasickness and St. Anthony's Fire.  They see visions of terrible sea monsters.  Rockaby gets crazier and crazier.   

Despite some losses, they make it home.  But soon after Capt. Pye summons Chevaucheux.  He is on his deathbed, and his flesh is turning into a kind of octopoid skin.  He passes the figurine to Chevaucheux, who shows Mycroft and Holmes that he, too, is now suffering from the same affliction.

Mycroft instructs Holmes to find Rockaby, and to round up every figurine and hurl them into the ocean.  From a now almost hopelessly insane Rockaby, Holmes and Chevaucheux learn of a coastal cave, with faces even more grotesque than those found in the homes stare from the walls, and seem to be alive in some way.  Chevaucheux loses it, transforming into a worm-cephalopod before tossing himself into the sea.  Holmes returns to Mycroft with his puzzling tale and its unfathomable implications.

This is the second superior Mythos-ian tale I've read by Stableford, who I always thought of as a hard-SF author, and now know I want to read more by.  Despite is frustrating ambiguities, this is a potent tale, and Stableford effectively evokes Lovecraftian creeps in his description of the sea voyage and elsewhere.  Good stuff!

 

"The Innsmouth Heritage"

by Brian Stableford
originally published Necronomicon Press, 1992

David, a geneticist from Manchester, England, is contacted by a long-lost college friend, Ann.  Ann, it seems, now owns much of Innsmouth.  The old town has changed a lot, and a lot isn't what was expected.  After the 1928, raid, in the 30's and beyond, the town was largely repopulated - mostly by normal folks.  Only a few members of the old families still live around town.  It's run-down, for sure.  But it's not quite the disaster it's usually depicted as.

As I said, things are not what they seem.  It's common knowledge there was a federal raid, but the actual reason for it remains unknown.  Most of Zadok Allen's tale seems to have been nothing more than the ravings of a delusional old wino.  Yes, there was an Esoteric Order of Dagon - but it seems to have been nothing more than a crackpot cult.  Yes there was some striking jewelry - but not that striking.  And yes, some of the surviving members of those old families have indeed developed "the Innsmouth look."  Mostly they hide away in embarrassment and resent being stared at or questioned.

It's the "Innsmouth look" that draws David there - a chance to study it, to unlock the genetic code that causes it.  So he comes to Innsmouth.

Ann introduces David to Gideon Sargent, an old fisherman who definitely has "the look".  Sargent is reluctant, but ultimately forthcoming.  He allows David to collect DNA specimens from him, and from the other "Innsmouth lookers" in town.  Sargent and the others' biggest concern is not "the look", but the dreams, of undersea cities, of the Deep Ones, of Cthulhu.  They hope David can cure them.  He gives them hope, but in fact knows he can't.

David's studies yield results.  He believes he has found the genetic cause of "the Look".  He believes the dreams are passed on through suggestion and expectation.  He has also fallen in love with Ann.  He proposes marriage, but she rejects him. 

David carries on.  The old Innsmouthers die off, of accidents (Gideon is killed in a freak storm), or old age.  A few years later, David proposes again.  Again Ann rejects him.  He knows why, and argues with her.  She too, is descended from old Innsmouth stock.  David assures her she will never have "the Look."  He assures her the dreams are nothing but psychological phenomena.  She is unmoved.  "You've never seen a shoggoth," she tells him. 

David leaves Innsmouth.  A few years later, he learns that Ann has drowned off Devil's Reef.

I will go out on a limb here and say this is one of the best non-Lovecraft Lovecraftian tales I've ever encountered.  Stableford (an author I know by name but had never read before) writes beautifully, in a non-flashy, plain-spoken voice.  The characters are fleshed-out and believable.  But the winner here is the expertly-handled ambiguity.  What is going on here?  Stableford has us all set that there's a logical, scientific explanation for the whole Innsmouth thing ... and then, with a couple sentences, turns the whole thing on it's ear.  Brilliant.