“Why was I supposed to run?”
“Because there is an attitude which you will have to maintain for many years. It can’t be superimposed on you, without limiting your effectiveness. It is a balance and a philosophy that you have to acquire by yourself. Only then are you ready for assignment. You have acquired a large measure of that philosophy here on the desert, with me.”
“This philosophy has dimensions? Standard parts?”
“They vary for the individual, Dake. One of the primary attitudes, however, is an awareness and appreciation of ‘apartness.’ I think you have that. Man hates and fears deviation, and will destroy it if he can. Thus your relationship to man, in your role of induced mutation, must be in somewhat of the nature of parent to child.”
“I’ve felt that. A... pity. A remoteness.”
“You can achieve identification with only those of your children who can be induced to aspire to... adulthood. You are a true adult.”
“With a pretty callous attitude toward the children?”
“There has to be a lot of attrition, a continual thinning of the ranks in order that others may grow.”
“Why?”
“What would the answer to that question be?”
He thought for a moment. “Would it be Watkins’ ultimate answer?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“Running, as you have been. Maybe he is back by now. Running, not from the fear of death, but from the fear of never knowing.”
“Can you tell me the answer?”
She looked at him for a long time. “I have to know if you’re ready, Dake. I have to know if you can accept it. Take my hands.”
They turned, facing each other. Her lips moved quietly, “Screens down, Dake.”
He was utterly lost in her eyes. Gone. Taken into some warm place. Taken into secret depths of oneness, of togetherness, of warmth, that he had never imagined could exist. This was a closeness far beyond that which could ever be achieved by the body. This was a spiritual mating, a clinging and mingling of souls, a high, wild, hard emotional experience that was beyond space and time...
Then he was aware that they were releasing each other, that they were separating slowly into separate entities.
“I’ve wanted that for so long,” she said gently. Her voice trembled. Her eyes were brimming. “I knew it would be... right.”
“Am... I ready?”
Her lips twisted. “Your ultimate answer will be anticlimax, Dake. Now.”
“I think I sense that. Maybe the obvious is always an anticlimax.”
She stood up lightly. “No, stay there. This is history, Dake. Human history. History of galactic man, and his adjustment to his environment, and his answer to decadence. There is more than a hundred thousand years of recorded history. Someday you will learn more of it. It is part of Stage Two training. The heart worlds grew and learned and warred on each other, and combined, and found peace, and added to themselves those other planets and star systems as they achieved cultural maturity. Each manlike cultural system made its own contributions to the whole. For the sake of simplicity, we shall call the entire unity Empire. Examine that word manlike. If I had a complete adjustment, I would not use that word. Physiological deviations are small throughout the galaxy. We are all men. You saw several varieties on Training T.”
“Acting a bit... servile.”
“Of course. One cultural group, part of the unity of Empire, is called the Senarian. It was that group which carried mathematical calculation to the inevitable pitch where it can make a sound prediction of the future. Perfection of extrapolation, the inevitable end result of all mathematical science. The parsing of time. Many thousand years ago the calculations of the Senarians were directed at a problem which was growing more serious. It had started in a very subtle way. It was noticed that, as new cultures were added to the unity of Empire, there followed a period when the top administrative jobs of Empire, the crucial decision-making positions, were all manned by citizens of the most recent culture to join Empire. After a few generations of the peace and sanity of membership in Empire, the descendants of the newest culture would lose their competitive drive, and no longer be of valid worth for leadership purposes. This was not a pressing problem so long as there were a sufficient number of barbaric cultures forging ahead toward Empire membership, as they would provide the future leadership, the future vitality which would avoid stagnation. But, the Senarians asked their vast computers, what will happen when there is no longer such a supply?
“The answer was disheartening to Empire. Leadership cannot come from any environment where there is peace and plenty. Leadership can only be developed in an environment where there is conflict, savagery, violence, hate. Leadership is the answer to a competitive environment. Empire is not a competitive environment. Empire will eventually be without leadership. Progress will cease.
“The computers were asked a second-level question. What will be the result of the cessation of progress? The answer was destruction. Destruction by life forms of neighboring galaxies. Life forms so alien that there could be no communication. Only through progress could there be a continual increment of strength sufficient to keep the species alive.
“A third question was asked. What can be done? The answer took much longer. And the logic of it was inevitable. Keep one planet in a barbaric state. Keep it in continual conflict. Permit it no knowledge of the existence of Empire, and no knowledge of its function. Do not permit it to destroy itself. Deny it any more than token space travel. Keep it in insane and continual conflict and that planet will provide you with your leadership. Take those men and women who rise to the top of the boiling pot, and skim them off, and train them, and use them.”
He stared at her in the silence. “Then all this... all this that has tortured men for thousands of years... it is just a... trick? A breeding ground? A training ground?”
She looked at him proudly. “More than that, Dake. Much more than that. Earth is the heart of Empire. The ruler. The destiny of the galaxy. Men of Earth rule all the countless stars. They rule justly, firmly, ruthlessly. Under the leadership of Earth, Empire moves on up the infinite ladder of progress, up to a strength that will keep us free forever.”
“Why was Earth selected?”
“Because here man was stronger than elsewhere. His natural environment had been harsher, gravity stronger than the norm, climate more extreme, nature more violent.”
“But I—”
“No more, Dake. Not now. You have to think over what I’ve told you. You have to understand how you must transfer your loyalty from Earth man to Galactic man. But transfer it with an increment in pride in Earth, and in yourself. I will talk to you later, after you have had a chance to think it over.”
Sixteen
He walked alone, and did not know where he walked, or how far. He stood on a hilltop and watched the sun slide red behind the far blue of the mountains. It made such a complete reversal of all his concepts, of all his adjustments to the political and emotional climate of his environment, that he felt as though someone had taken his brain between two hard hands, and twisted it like a sponge.
There was no segment of his beliefs that did not need reorganization, reevaluation.
Earth had a history. There were names in that history. Alexander, Hannibal, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini. And, he thought, Christ. And Buddha and Muhammad and Vishnu. Good and evil, fighting an endless battle, to a predestined draw. Keep the pot boiling. Keep the four horsemen riding across the ravaged lands. A million men broken and burned and dying for each one selected. Massive, callous, mathematical cruelty, for the sake of... the greatest good for the greatest number.