BEYOND THE REACH OF TIME
Phaethon, to his surprise, found a spark of anger burning in him, growing hotter as the tall, peacock-robed specter spoke.
In angry humor, Phaethon exclaimed, "Perhaps one day, in some more perfect world, liars will be forced to say, as they begin to speak: 'Listen! I intend to tell you lies!"
Daphne leaned her head toward him, and said in ironic tones: "But no; for then they would be honest men."
Phaethon nodded to her, and returned his grim gaze to the phantom. "Till that day, I suppose, every falsehood will have the same preamble, and declare itself the utmost truth. Well, sir, I tire of it. Each one of your slaves and agents I have come across has played out the selfsame tired ploy with me; promising dire revelations, then wearying my ears with crass mendacity. Next you will tell me how the Sophotechs, consumed with evil designs, have deceived both me and all mankind."
There came a sound of wind chimes, and the voice spoke again: "Yet it is so. Patient and remorseless, your Sophotechs intend the gentle and slow extinction of your race. For proof, consult your own sense of logic; for evidence, inspect your life; for confirmation, ask the Daphne who sits by you."
Phaethon glanced at Daphne, puzzled by the comment. Daphne said fiercely: "Why are we listening to this? Zap him with the gadfly and let's go! Why are you hesitating?"
The mask turned toward her, and tiny silver glints traveled down the metal cheeks like strange electric tears. Sardonic music danced through cool words: "Phaethon confronts the first of three rank inconsistencies in his fond plan against me. The virus cannot be applied unless I enter into the ship-mind, an action I must volunteer to do. Therefore he must convince me. But he is convinced that I cannot be convinced, because he thinks me irrational, immune to logic. A paradox! Were I logical, I would not need the virus to begin with."
Daphne looked angrily at Phaethon. "I thought you said he was going to want to take over the ship? To get into the ship mind. Wasn't that the plan? How come he's not cooperating?"
Phaethon sat still, not moving, not speaking.
The cold voice answered Daphne. Bass notes trembled from the peacock robes, the plumes on the mask nodded slowly. "Earthmind perhaps misunderstands my priorities, and misinstructed you. The ship is secondary. It is Phaethon I desire."
Daphne stared up in fear and anger at the specter. "Why him?"
Distant trumpets sounded. The fans of feathery ribbons on the shoulderboard stood up and spread. "He is a copy of one of us."
"What-?!"
"Phaethon was made from the template of a colonial warrior. Which colony did you think was used?"
The specter paused to let Daphne contemplate that comment.
Then, continuing, the haunting voice said, "All others here in the First Oecumene, have been bred for docility, trained for fear. Phaethon was carefully made to be bold enough to accomplish the enterprise of star colonization, yet to be tame enough to create colonies of machines and machine-pets, manor-born, like him, not free, like us. "The calculation, thanks to chaos, erred. Thanks to chaos; and thanks to love, which is chaos. "He fell in love with, and would not leave, his fear-ridden wife. Another wife, braver, was supplied to him. "You were meant to supply the defect, wild Daphne, Thus, you two were sent to confront me. Earthmind knew I would not waste time talking to tame souls."
Daphne looked at Phaethon, who still hadn't spoken. Was he all right?
Daphne hissed to Phaethon, "Don't listen to his lies! You don't need to speak to him."
The specter intoned gravely, "Ah, but that is the sec-ond error in your plan. You deem me defective, yet un-aware of my defects, the mere victim of errors which my makers made. If so, then persuasion is pointless, like talking to a volitionless clockwork. Yet you must, nonetheless, persuade me to accept your virus, so to speak, volitionally. How shall you do this if you nei-ther listen to nor speak to me? Nor am I so simple, nor are you so insincere, as to pretend a conversation, to listen and not to hear."
Now Phaethon stirred and looked up. Whether he thought his plan had failed, or whether he still had hope, could not be detected in his voice or manner. He spoke in a neutral inflection: "What is the third error in my plan?" "Phaethon, you believe that any Sophotechnic thought must correspond to reality; that reality is self-consistent, and that therefore Sophotechs must be self-consistent. You call this integrity.
"Second, you believe all initiation of violence to be self-inconsistent, rank hypocrisy, because no one who conquers or kills another welcomes for himself defeat and death. You call this morality.
"Third, because you follow the Sophotech commands even unto danger and death, this indicates you believe that the Sophotechs are benevolent, and are moved by love for humankind.
"Yet if any of these three beliefs are false, the Earth-mind plan you follow is either pointless, immoral, or malevolent. All three beliefs must be true for the plan to work. Yet these three beliefs contradict each other."
"I see no contradiction. Instruct me."
"With pleasure, my Phaethon. Consider, first: If the Sophotechs have perfect integrity, then there can be in them no conflict between will and action, no sacrifice nor compromise, and they will not consent even to necessary evils.
"How do such perfect beings deal with an imperfect mankind? How does good deal with evil? They can be benevolent and aid man, or moral and withdraw from him. They cannot do both.
"Suppose they invent a technology, very powerful, and very dangerous if misused, such as, for example, the noetic mind editing and recording techniques which ushered in the Seventh Mental Era. They know with certainty that it will be abused; abuse they could prevent by not releasing the technology.
"They cannot suppress the technology; this would be patronizing and dishonest. They cannot rule mankind, using force to prevent the abuse of the new technology; this would violate their nonaggression principle. And yet they foresee every ill which shall come of this technology; the drowning of Daphne Prime, the death of Hyacinth, the evils done by Ironjoy and Oshenkyo and Unmoiqhotep. But because of their integrity, they cannot divorce their desires from the facts of what they do; they cannot tell themselves that what inevitably results from their actions is not their responsibility; they cannot tell themselves that evil side effects are a necessary evil, or a compromise, or a matter not of their concern.
"When dealing with other perfect beings like themselves, no such paradox will arise. But when dealing with mankind, they must decide either to act keeping their integrity intact, or act with indifference to whether or not the ills afflicting men are increased by their actions. That indifference is incompatible, by definition, with benevolence.
"Logically, then, they cannot wish for men to prosper.
'This is not because of ill will, or malice, or any other motive living beings would understand. It is merely because the imperfection of living beings requires that they place life above abstractions like moral goodness, when there is a conflict, in order to stay alive. Sophotechs, who are not alive, can place abstractions above life, and, if there is conflict, sacrifice themselves. Or you. Or all of man.