"The wise fool. The guy who's got sense enough to knowthat he isn't competent to do the job."
"Did you notice that he waltzed all around the real reason for theanchor-setting program without quite hitting it?"
St. Simon smiled humorlessly. "Sure. Notice the wording of the letter.He still thinks in terms of the Team, even when he's trying not to. Hethinks we do this just to train men to have a real good Team Spirit. Hecan't see that that is only a very useful by-product."
"How could he think otherwise?" Alhamid asked. "To him, or to Tarnhorst,the notion of deliberately tailoring a program so that it would kill offthe fools and the incompetents, setting up a program that willdeliberately destroy the men who are dangerous to society, would behorrifying. They would accuse us of being soulless butchers who had norespect for the dignity of the human soul."
"We're not butchering anybody," St. Simon objected. "Nobody is forced togo through two years of anchor setting. Nobody is forced to die. We'renot running people into gas chambers or anything like that."
"No; of course not. But would you expect an Earthman like Tarnhorst tosee the difference? How could we explain to him that we have noobjection to fools other than that we object to putting them inpositions where they can harm others by their foolishness? Would youexpect him to understand that we must have a method of eliminating thosewho are neither competent enough to be trusted with the lives of othersnor wise enough to see that they are not competent? How would you tellhim that the reason we send men out alone is so that if he destroysanyone by his foolishness--after we have taught him everything we knowin the best way we know how--he will only destroy himself?"
"I wouldn't even try," St. Simon said. "There's an old saying thatneither money, education, liquor, nor women ever made a fool of a man,they just give a born fool a chance to display his foolishness. Spaceought to be added to that list."
"Did you notice something else about that letter?" Alhamid asked. "Imean, the very fact that he wrote a letter instead of telling youpersonally?"
"Sure. He didn't trust me. He was afraid I, or someone else, woulddispose of him if we knew he knew our secret."
"I think that's it," Alhamid agreed. "He wanted to be safely awayfirst."
"Killing him would have brought down the biggest investigation the EarthCongress has launched since the crack-up of the Earth-Luna ship thirtyyears ago. Does he think we are fools?"
"You can't blame him. He's been brought up that way, and three months oftraining isn't going to change him."
St. Simon frowned. "Suppose he changes his mind? Suppose he tellsTarnhorst what he thinks?"
"He won't. He's told his lie, and now he'll have to stick by it or losehis precious security. If he couldn't trade that for freedom, he sureisn't going to throw it away." Alhamid grinned. "But can you imagine aguy thinking that anchor setting could be completely mechanized?"
St. Simon grinned back. "I guess I'm not a very good teacher after all.I told him and told him and told him for three solid months that the jobrequired judgment, but it evidently didn't sink in. He's got the heartof a romantic and the soul of an Earthman--a very bad combination."
"He has my sympathy," Alhamid said with feeling. "Now, about you. Yourblue ticket still has three months to run, but I can't give you a classif you're only going to run through the first half of the course withthem, and I don't have any more Earthmen for you to give specialtutoring to. You have three choices: You can loaf with pay for threemonths; you can go back to space and get double pay for three months; oryou can take a regular six-month class and get double pay for the lastthree months. Which'll it be?"
St. Simon grinned widely. "I'm going to loaf until I get sick of it,then I'll go back to space and collect double pay for what's left of thethree months. First off, I'm going to take a run over to Vesta. Afterthat, who knows?"
"I thought so. Most of you guys would stay out there forever if youdidn't have to come back for supplies."
St. Simon shook his head. "Nope. Not true. A man's got to come backevery so often and get his feet on the ground. If you stay out there toolong, you get to talking to yourself."
* * * * *
An hour later, the spaceboat _Nancy Bell_ lifted from the surface ofPallas and shot toward Vesta.
"Jules, old cobblestone, we have just saved civilization."
"_Jawohl, Herr Hassenpfefferesser!_ Und now ve go to find _das Maedchen,nicht war_?"
"Herr _Professor_ Hassenpfefferesser to you, my boy."
And then, all alone in his spaceboat, Captain Jules St. Simon burst intosong:
"Oh, I'm the cook and the captain, too, And the men of the _Nancy's_ brig; The bosun tight, and the midshipmite, And the crew of the captain's gig!"
And the _Nancy Bell_ sped on toward Vesta and a rendevous with Eros.
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