“Nine thousand years of grace. With deacceleration perhaps a bit more.
“No time left for orderly growth of all primitive planets.
“Time now for stimuli — for an acceleration of the growth curve.”
Jeff said, “Nine thousand years? We’ll all be dust.”
“One attribute of a civilization on the right path toward maturity,” said Laura, “is its willingness to endure present discomfort for the sake of generations unborn. Your remote descendants will curse you for the wasting of this home planet of yours.”
“Where do we fit in?” Julie asked.
“We have found,” said Paul, “a great variation in the rapidity with which primitive planets pass through the divisions. The reason lies in the index of ingenuity of the race itself. You of Earth have had an almost phenomenally short span of time between Division One and Division Two. Only one other planet, according to our records, has progressed as quickly. That planet no longer exists.”
“Why?” Jeff asked. “What happened?”
“Technistic progress so far outstripped progress in the social sciences and humanities that the planet was not psychologically equipped for an atomic era. A social stone age combined with a scientific atomic age equals inevitable self-destruction. We’ve plotted that on our calculation equipment a hundred times. The answer is always the same.”
“Under ‘normal’ conditions, then,” Jeff asked dryly, “you’d let us go ahead and destroy ourselves?”
“Under the Covenant, yes,” Laura said. “But now we have an emergency situation. Your rate of progress indicates that if we interfere we can forestall that destruction, that if we can save you, you may be able, through your basic rate of progress, to contribute something of value to the combat nine thousand years in the future.”
“And if we can’t?”
“You’ll add to our numbers. By then you’ll be an autonomous member of the group and you’ll share our techniques and be able to utilize them.”
Paul and Elaine left the room.
“Then we’re a test case, or something like that?” Jeff asked.
Laura’s smile had an unearthly coolness. “Not exactly. All members were put on an emergency basis. Our home planet was assigned the task of the acceleration of primitive planets. That assignment is a small part of the planning that is going on. We are one of four thousand trained teams. Each planet presents its own problem. We have spent nearly two of your years here, attacking the specific problem you present.”
“And you think,” Jeff said, “that Borden Means is the answer?”
“We know it,” Mike answered. “I merely object to your part in it.”
He turned away from a high table in the corner of the room. On the table was a cube of night. In the center of the cube a small sphere stood, apparently unsupported.
“What is Borden Means?” Julie asked.
“The men of your planet shoot at wild birds with a weapon based on the principle of the expansion of gases. The birds are wary. So an artificial bird is sometimes placed on the water. The men make reassuring bird sounds with instruments for that purpose.” There was an edge in Mike’s voice as he explained. “Soon the silly birds fly within range of the weapons. We merely carefully selected an artificial bird. We removed its own instincts and personality traits. We had made a study of those semantic combinations most likely to influence the people of this planet. The man-thing that was once Borden Means is easy to control. The sounds are made. The puppet moves. The flights wheel and soar in, suddenly realizing that this is sound and movement that they have yearned for all their lives.”
“We cannot be decoyed!” Jeff said hotly.
“Can’t you, though? You are a primitive species. Certain types of red ants throng to the source of an electric current. We merely take advantage of certain instincts. Your race badly needs emotional reassurance and security. An end of fear. A symbol to follow. It is very simple. We decoy you into a period of international unification. It is easier to achieve it on emotional grounds than on political. We lead you into a few decades of peace. And that is all you need. In three decades your social sciences will have bridged the gap. Should you split into autonomous nations again at the end of that period, there will no longer be the intense danger of self-elimination. Hence the puppet once known as Borden Means.
“We have given him a personal history without flaw. We found a puppet with those features most likely to appeal to the visual demands of your race. We have selected a puppet who can logically reach the greatest numbers. His skills are our skills because we control him. We bled him of every reaction pattern. He is the peak and personification of suggestibility. It is not necessary for him to breathe for his life to continue. In the new pattern there is no flaw, no possibility of his saying or doing anything to diminish his own influence. The result is a personal magnetism so intense that no one of your species can withstand it.”
Jeff stood up. “Our people will find him out,” he said.
“And have every memory of him erased.”
“Enemy nations will just think of him as a sign of weakness.”
“While their own people have begun to think of him as the greatest man in the world?”
“Please,” Julie said, “Tell us where we fit. Jeff and I. We were suspicious. You didn’t erase it out of our minds and you spoke of not wanting to because of damaging us in some way.”
“We have other planets to visit,” Laura said. “There are not enough teams. Though Vinthar... Mike... does not agree in principle, the rest of us wish to avoid years of bondage on Earth by turning the procedure into a self-sustaining circuit. In other words, by taking two people of Earth and training them to take over the guide function for Borden Means. This requires people with a knowledge of the public mind, a knowledge of human limitations and a dedication to our purpose. You two seem to have what we need.”
Jeff felt a sick nausea. He held his head in his hands for a moment. The chair adjusted to each change of position. “No,” he said. “It’s... too much power. Too much responsibility. And the thought of... controlling a thing like Means... like what you have made of Borden Means.” He stood up. “I can’t do it. I don’t want to do it. Do you, Julie?”
She shook her head. “No. I couldn’t...”
“The period of training,” said Laura gently, “would take only four of your months. There would be many tangential advantages. You would be trained on our home planet. You would be transported there.”
“But it means forever thinking of all our own people as... stupid animals that can be deluded intoБ" Jeff said.
“Take a look at your planet as it is — as it has been over the past fifty years, Jeffrey Rayden,” Laura said in a tone that made him think of fractured steel.
Julie stood beside Jeff and took hold of his arm. She gave Laura the smile of a guest who wants to leave in the middle of the party. “You must see how we feel. Thank you very much. But we couldn’t possibly get on your ship, wherever it is, and go kiting off across the galaxy. I’m certain that as soon as I step out that door, everything that happened in here will seem crazy and unreal.”
The amusement that flashed between Mike and Laura was so tangible and so strong that Jeff felt the corners of his mouth lift involuntarily.
They were led to the door and it slid open.
Julie’s fingers bit into his arm. His mouth sagged open and his knees went as weak as water. They stood together in the glorious light of a strange vast yellow sun looking out across the gentle valley where, in the distance, the blood and crimson towers and minarets of an ancient city rose to half the height of the purple mountains beyond. In the middle distance a thousand fountains flung spray like diamonds into the air that smelled of strange pine.