Hockley caught sight of his political colleagues and sensed their dismay. The field of disquietude seemed almost tangible in the air. The senators seemed half frightened by what they felt but could not understand.
Showalter’s wild waving at the far corner of the room finally caught Hockley’s eye and he moved toward the small table which the assistant had reserved for them. Showalter was upset, too, by the atmosphere within the room.
“What the devil is up?” he said. “Seems like everybody’s on edge this morning. I never saw a bunch of guys so touchy. You’d think they woke up with snakes in their beds.”
“Didn’t you know?” said Hockley. “Haven’t you been to any of the lectures this morning?”
“No. A couple of the senators were getting bored with all the scientific doings so I thought maybe I should try to entertain them. We took in what passes for such here, but it wasn’t much better than the lectures as a show. Tell me what’s up.”
Briefly, Hockley described Silvers’ upset of the day before and Carmen’s experience that morning. Showalter let his glance rove over his fellow Earthmen, trying to catch snatches of the buzzing conversation at nearby tables.
“You think that’s the kind of thing that’s got them all going this morning?” he said.
Hockley nodded. “I caught enough of it passing through to know that’s what it is. I gather that every group has run into the same kind of thing by now, the fencing off of broad areas where we have already tried to do research.
“After the first cloud of awe wore off, the first thing everyone wanted was an answer to his own pet line of research. Nine times out of ten it was something the Rykes told them to chuck down the drain. That advice doesn’t sit so well—as you can plainly see.”
Showalter drew back his gaze and stared for a long time at Hockley. “You knew this would happen. That’s why you brought us here—”
“I had hopes of it. I was reasonably sure this was the way the Rykes operated.”
Showalter remained thoughtful for a long time before he spoke again. “You’ve won your point, I suppose, as far as this group goes, but you can’t hope to convince all of Earth by this. The Rykes will hold their offer open, and others will accept it on behalf of Earth.
“And what if it’s we who are wrong, in the end? How can you be sure that this isn’t the way the Rykes have made their tremendous speed —by not going down all the blind alleys that we rattle around in.”
“I’m sure it is the way they have attained such speed of advancement.”
“Then maybe we ought to go along, regardless of our own desires. Maybe we never did know how to do research!”
Hockley smiled across the table at his assistant. “You believe that, of course.”
“I’m just talking,” said Showalter irritably. “The thing gets more loopy every day. If you think you understand the Rykes I wish you would give out with what the score is. By the looks of most of these guys I would say they are getting ready to throttle the next Ryke they see instead of knuckle under to him.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Hockley fervently. “I certainly hope you’re right.”
By evening there was increasing evidence that he was. Hockley passed up the afternoon lecture period and spent the time in the lounge doing some thinking of his own. He knew he couldn’t push the group. Above all, he mustn’t give way to any temptation to push them or say, “I told you so.” Their present frustration was so deep that their antagonism could be turned almost indiscriminately in any direction, and he would be offering himself as a ready target if he were not careful.
On the other hand he had to be ready to take advantage of their disaffection and throw them a decisive challenge when they were ready for it. That might be tonight, or it might be another week. He wished for a sure way of knowing. As things turned out, however, the necessity of choosing the time was taken from him.
After dinner that night, when the group began to drift into the lounge, Silvers and Carmen and three of the other men came over to where Hockley sat. Silvers fumbled with the buttons of his coat as if preparing to make an address.
“We’d like to request,” he said, “that is—we think we ought to get together. We’d like you to call a meeting, Hockley. Some of us have a few things we’d like to talk over.”
Hockley nodded, his face impassive.
“The matter I mentioned to you the other night,” said Silvers. “It’s been happening to all the men. We think we ought to talk about it.”
“Fine,” said Hockley. “I’ve been thinking it would perhaps be a good idea. Pass the word around and let’s get some chairs. We can convene in ten minutes.”
The others nodded somberly and moved away with all the enthusiasm of preparing for a funeral, And maybe that’s what it would be, Hockley thought—somebody’s funeral. He hoped it would be the Rykes.
The room began filling almost at once, as if they had been expecting the call. In little more than five minutes it seemed that every member of the Earth delegation had assembled, leaving time to spare.
The senators still wore their looks of puzzlement and half-frightened anxiety, which had intensified if anything. There was no puzzlement on the faces of the scientists, however, only a set and determined expression that Hockley hardly dared interpret as meaning they had made up their minds. He had to have their verbal confirmation.
Informally, he thrust his hands in his pockets and sauntered to the front of the group.
“I have been asked to call a meeting,” he said, “by certain members of the group who have something on their minds. They seem to feel we’d all be interested in what is troubling them. Since I have nothing in particular to say I’m simply going to turn the floor over to those of you who have. Dr. Silvers first approached me to call this discussion, so I shall ask him to lead off. Will you come to the front, Dr. Silvers?”
The mathematician rose as if wishing someone else would do the talking. He stood at one side of the group, halfway to the rear. “I can do all right from here,” he said.
After a pause, as if coming to a momentous decision, he plunged into his complaint. “It appears that nearly all of us have encountered an aspect of the Ryke culture and character which was not anticipated when we first received their offer.” Briefly, he related the details of the Ryke rejection of his research on the Legrandian Equations.
“We were told we were going to have all our questions answered, that the Ryke’s science included all we could anticipate or hope to accomplish in the next few millenia. I swallowed that. We all did. It appears we were slightly in error. It begins to appear as if we are not going to find the intellectual paradise we anticipated.”
He smiled wryly. “I’m sure none of you is more ready than I to admit he has been a fool. It appears that paradise, so-called, consists merely of a few selected gems which the Rykes consider particularly valuable, while the rest of the field goes untouched.
“I want to offer public apologies to Dr. Hockley, who saw and understood the situation as it actually existed, while the rest of us had our heads in the clouds. Exactly how he knew, I’m not sure, but he did, and very brilliantly chose the only way possible to convince us that what he knew was correct.
“I suggest we do our packing tonight, gentlemen. Let us return at once to our laboratories and spend the rest of our lives in some degree of atonement for being such fools as to fall for the line the Rykes tried to sell us.”
Hockley’s eyes were on the senators. At first there were white faces filled with incredulity as the mathematician proceeded. Then slowly this changed to sheer horror.