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Short story about the drawbacks of human telepathy on an alien planet



There will be heavy spoilers in my question. The plot is that a band of humans have been genetically engineered to be telepathic. Unfortunately, the engineered humans made the rest of humanity nervous, and were banished to an alien colony.


The colony does okay, despite hostile but low-tech aliens. However, things in the city begin to slowly deteriorate. Aliens suddenly appear 'out of nowhere', with the citizens discovering holes in the city walls that were clearly not new, but which the aliens are now using to infiltrate the city.


The protagonist also notes that while the telepathy trait would be expected to show up in 75% of offspring (25% having dual non-dominant genes), the actual births show almost no non-telepaths.


The story concludes by discovering that the non-telepaths notice things which the telepaths can't, because they're not being telepathically urged to ignore things (broken walls, aliens walking in their midst) which don't fit the narrative of the rest of city. In short, the normal humans see the world how it is because they're not burdened by the expectations of the whole city drowning out what their own eyes are telling them.


Any ideas what this is?



Answer



This is Cobwebs, by Ray Brown. It was in the August 1987 Analog.


I seem to recall a conversation between the main character and one of the aliens, explaining that the human telepaths are refugees from persecution back on Earth. He gets the dusty response that they ought to be more philosophic and accept inevitable death without making a fuss.



"If we had a choice," she said, "maybe we would leave. But we don't have that choice. The people of Earth and the other planets that could support human life fear us and outnumber us greatly. They hate telepaths. This is the only planet where those humans who hate and fear us don't live. We had only the choice of being exiled here or being killed, and if we go back they will kill us."

We'd been trying that one on it for all four months—but I let Mary go on. Her own frustration would, I decided, be the most efficient convincer.

"Nor," she went on, "can we go exploring. Our enemies don't want us loose in the galaxy, so they gave us only enough fuel to get here. We must live here, for there is nowhere else for us to go. Can you understand me?"

"Well enough," it said. "It would be a moving tale if you creatures were of the sort that could accept an inevitable death with good grace."

"Inevitable?"

"If you stay here, we will kill you. How many ways must I find to tell you that you are unwelcome? How many times must you tell me the same story? Why do you all persist in telling me you have no choice as if that were an excuse for taking what does not belong to you?" It turned to me. "We have accomplished nothing in four of your months. Release me or let me die."




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