The Unthinkable

"The Unthinkable" is a fantasy short story by Bruce Sterling, first published in the August 1991 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Set in an alternative world where magical and paranormal creatures are widely known and have shaped the development of human history, the story involves elements of the Cthulhu Mythos and has been included in anthologies such as Cthulhu 2000: A Lovecraftian Anthology and The Book of Cthulhu.
==Synopsis==
The story takes place at the end of the Cold War, but in an alternative timeline in which technological progress, at least in the 20th century, has occurred side by side with the exploitation of magic and supernatural creatures such as Basilisks and Jinn for various purposes, ranging from mundane to military. In Geneva, Soviet Dr. Ivan Tsyganov lives in a Baba Yaga hut: a mobile house that walks on three pairs of giant chicken legs. His fridge is powered by a small frost demon trapped inside the mechanism, and so on.
Tsyganov is visited by his long-time acquaintance, American military theorist Dr. Elwood Doughty, who is looking forward to a peaceful retirement in Texas to raise his infant son now that the hostilities are over. The two doctors reminisce about tests conducted by the American government in Utah, which have resulted in two-headed sheep and other anomalies, as well as Night-gaunts and Banshees inhabiting the area. According to Tsyganov, the vicinity of Chernobyl is even worse.
Speaking about the price to be paid for the follies of their governments, Doughty talks about his involvement during World War II with something that Tsyganov refers to as "the Unthinkable": the Azathoth Bomb, which apparently works by opening momentary gates to Azathoth's realm and allowing its Radiance to pour through and taint everything it comes in contact with. Tsyganov regards the whole project as madness, but Doughty attempts to justify it by pointing out that the Japanese were employing giant Majins and Gojiras to lay waste throughout Asia, and the Nazis utilised Leviathans to prey upon ships. Still unconvinced, Tsyganov worries that Doughty might have been tainted by Azathoth, as he has witnessed the bomb being tested, but Doughty assures him that he has taken precautions, and that the best military exorcists have guaranteed that he is clean.
Doughty receives a "telephone" call from his wife: actually a pentagram printed on a square of silk which can project his wife's image like a small hologram. She is calling him to deliver the tragic news that their son has been examined by exorcists who found that he is tainted, and that he is in some way "monstrous".
==See also==
*Cast a Deadly Spell, a 1991 movie set in a similar world where magic and magical creatures are used alongside technology.
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Bruce Sterling works