"But even if the project should be wrecked," Enoch pointed out, "there is no surety that any group would gain. It would only throw the question of where the time and energy should be used into an open debate. You say that there are many special interest factions banding together to carry on the fight against us. Suppose that they do win. Then they must turn around and start fighting among themselves."
"Of course that's the case," Ulysses admitted, "but then each of them has a chance to get what they want, or think they have a chance. The way it is they have no chance at all. Before any of them has a chance this project must go down the drain. There is one group on the far side of the galaxy that wants to move out into the thinly populated sections of one particular section of the rim. They still believe in an ancient legend which says that their race arose as the result of immigrants from another galaxy who landed on the rim and worked their way inward over many galactic years. They think that if they can get out to the rim they can turn that legend into history to their greater glory. Another group wants to go into a small spiral arm because of an obscure record that many eons ago their ancestors picked up some virtually undecipherable messages which they believed came from that direction. Through the years the story has grown, until today they are convinced a race of intellectual giants will be found in that spiral arm. And there is always the pressure, naturally, to probe deeper into the galactic core. You must realize that we have only started, that the galaxy still is largely unexplored, that the thousands of races who form Galactic Central still are pioneers. And as a result, Galactic Central is continually subjected to all sorts of pressures."
"You sound," said Enoch, "as if you have little hope of maintaining this station, here on Earth."
"Almost no hope at all," Ulysses told him. "But so far as you yourself are concerned, there will be an option. You can stay here and live out an ordinary life on Earth or you can be assigned to another station. Galactic Central hopes that you would elect to continue on with us."
"That sounds pretty final."
"I am afraid," Ulysses said, "it is. I am sorry, Enoch, to be, the bearer of bad news."
Enoch sat numb and stricken. Bad news! It was worse than that. It was the end of everything.
He sensed the crashing down of not only his own personal world, but of all the hopes of Earth. With the station gone, Earth once more would be left in the backwaters of the galaxy, with no hope of help, no chance of recognition, no realization of what lay waiting in the galaxy. Standing alone and naked, the human race would go on in its same old path, fumbling its uncertain way toward a blind, mad future.
20
The Hazer was elderly. The golden haze that enveloped him had lost the sparkle of its youthfulness. It was a mellow glow, deep and rich-not the blinding haze of a younger being. He carried himself with a solid dignity, and the flaring topknot that was neither hair nor feathers was white, a sort of saintly whiteness. His face was soft and tender, the softness and the tenderness which in a man might have been expressed in kindly wrinkles.
"I am sorry," he told Enoch, "that our meeting must be such as this. Although, under any circumstances, I am glad to meet you. I have heard of you. It is not often that a being of an outside planet is the keeper of a station. Because of this, young being, I have been intrigued with you. I have wondered what sort of creature you might turn out to be."
"You need have no apprehension of him," Ulysses said, a little sharply.
"I will vouch for him. We have been friends for years."
"Yes, I forgot," the Hazer said. "You are his discoverer."
He peered around the room. "Another one," he said. "I did not know there were two of them. I only knew of one."
"It's a friend of Enoch's," Ulysses said.
"There has been contact, then. Contact with the planet."
"No, there has been no contact."
"Perhaps an indiscretion."
"Perhaps," Ulysses said, "but under provocation that I doubt either you or I could have stood against."
Lucy had risen to her feet and now she came across the room, moving quietly and slowly, as if she might be floating.
The Hazer spoke to her in the common tongue. "I am glad to meet you.
Very glad to meet you."
"She cannot speak," Ulysses said. "Nor hear. She has no communication."
"Compensation," said the Hazer.
"You think so?" asked Ulysses.
"I am sure of it."
He walked slowly forward and Lucy waited.
"It-she, the female form, you called it-she is not afraid."
Ulysses chuckled. "Not even of me," he said.
The Hazer reached out his hand to her and she stood quietly for a moment, then one of her hands came up and took the Hazer's fingers, more like tentacles than fingers, in its grasp.
It seemed to Enoch, for a moment, that the cloak of golden haze reached out to wrap the Earth girl in its glow. Enoch blinked his eyes and the illusion, if it had been illusion, was swept away, and it only was the Hazer who had the golden cloak.
And how was it, Enoch wondered, that there was no fear in her, either of Ulysses or the Hazer? Was it because, in truth, as he had said, she could see beyond the outward guise, could somehow sense the basic humanity (God help me, I cannot think, even now, except in human terms!) that was in these creatures? And if that were true, was it because she herself was not entirely human? A human, certainly, in form and origin, but not formed and molded into the human culture-being perhaps, what a human would be if he were not hemmed about so closely by the rules of behavior and outlook that through the years had hardened into law to comprise a common human attitude.
Lucy dropped the Hazer's hand and went back to the sofa.
The Hazer said, "Enoch Wallace."
"Yes."
"She is of your race?"
"Yes, of course she is."
"She is most unlike you. Almost as if there were two races."
"There is not two races. There is only one."
"Are there many others like her?"
"I would not know," said Enoch.
"Coffee," said Ulysses to the Hazer. "Would you like some coffee?"
"Coffee?"
"A most delicious brew. Earth's one great accomplishment."
"I am not acquainted with it," said the Hazer. "I don't believe I will."
He turned ponderously to Enoch.
"You know why I am here?" he asked.
"I believe so."
"It is a matter I regret," said the Hazer. "But I must…"
"If you'd rather," Enoch said, "we can consider that the protest has been made. I would so stipulate."
"Why not?" Ulysses said. "There is no need, it seems to me, to have the three of us go through a somewhat painful scene."
The Hazer hesitated.
"If you feel you must," said Enoch.
"No," the Hazer said. "I am satisfied if an unspoken protest be generously accepted."
"Accepted," Enoch said, "on just one condition. That I satisfy myself that the charge is not unfounded. I must go out and see."
"You do not believe me?"
"It is not a matter of belief. It is something that can be checked. I cannot accept either for myself or for my planet until I have done that much."
"Enoch," Ulysses said, "the Vegan has been gracious. Not only now, but before this happened. His race presses the charge most reluctantly. They suffered much to protect the Earth and you."
"And the feeling is that I would be ungracious if I did not accept the protest and the charge on the Vegan statement."
"I am sorry, Enoch," said Ulysses. "That is what I mean."
Enoch shook his head. "For years I've tried to understand and to conform to the ethics and ideas of all the people who have come through this station. I've pushed my own human instincts and training to one side. I've tried to understand other viewpoints and to evaluate other ways of thinking, many of which did violence to my own. I am glad of all of it, for it has given me a chance to go beyond the narrowness of Earth. I think I gained something from it all. But none of this touched Earth; only myself was involved. This business touches Earth and I must approach it from an Earthman's viewpoint. In this particular instance I am not simply the keeper of a galactic station."