aboutfinished."
"Surely all this was unnecessary!" Joyce said. "With your powers ofteleportation and other psionic abilities you must possess it shouldhave been easy for you to _control_ the Markovians directly, force themto cease their piracy--"
"Of course," said Venor. "That would have been so much easier for us.And so futile. The Markovians would have learned nothing through beingtaken over by us and operated externally. They would have remained thesame. But it was our desire to change them, teach them, accomplishgenuine learning within them. It is always longer and more difficultthis way. The results, however, are more lasting!"
"_Who_ are you people--_what_ are you?" Cameron said with suddenintensity. "You have teleportation--and how many other unknown psychicpowers? You have forced us to believe you can tame such a vicious worldas the Markovian Nucleus once was.
"But where is there a life of your own? With all your powers you mustlive at the whim of other cultures. Where is _your_ culture? Where isyour own purpose? In spite of all you have, your life is a parasiticalone."
Venor smiled gently. "Is not the parent--or the teacher--the servant ofthe child?" he said. "Has it not always been so if a species is to risevery far in its conquest of the Universe?
"But this does not mean that the parent or teacher has no life of hisown. You ask where is our culture? The culture of _all_ worlds is ours.We don't have great cities and vast fleets. The wolf cubs build thesefor us. They carry us across space and shelter us in their cities.
"Our own energies are expended in a thousand other and more profitableways. We have sought and learned a few of the secrets of life and mind.With these we can move as you were moved, when we choose to do so. Fromwhere I sit I can speak with any of our kind on this planet or any worldof the entire Nucleus. And a few of us, united in the effort, can touchthose in distant galaxies.
"What culture would you have us acquire, that we do not have?" Venorfinished.
* * * * *
Without answer, Cameron arose and strode slowly to the window, his backto the room. He looked out upon the rude wooden huts and the toweringforest beyond. He tried to tell himself it was all a lie. Such thingscouldn't be. But he could feel it now with increasing strength, as ifall his senses were quickening--the benign aura, the indefinable wash ofpower that seemed to lap at the edge of his mind.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Joyce's face, almost radiantas she, too, sensed it here in the presence of the Ids.
Love, as a genuine power, had been taught by every Terran philosopher ofany social worth. But it had never really been tried. Not in the way theIds understood it. Cameron felt he could only guess at the terriblediscipline of mind it required to use it as they did. The analogy of thewolf cubs was all very well, and man had learned to go that far. Butthere is a difference when your own kind is involved, he thought.
Perhaps it was out of sheer fear of each other that men continued to tryto sway with hate, the most primitive of all their weapons.
It's easy to hate, he thought. Love is hard, and because it is, thetough humans who can't achieve it and have the patience to manipulate itmust scorn it. The truly weak ones, they're incapable of the stern andbrutal self-discipline required of one who loves his enemy.
But men had known how. Back in the caves they had known how to conquerthe wolf and the wild horse. Where had they lost it?
The vision of the buildings and the forest with its eternal peace wasstill in his eyes. What else could you want, with the whole Universe inthe palm of your hand?
He turned sharply. "You tricked us into betraying ourselves to Marthasa,and you said that you planned it this way when you first heard of ourcoming. But you have not yet said why. Why did you want us to see whatyou had done?"
"You needed to have evidence from the Markovians themselves," saidVenor. "That is why I led you to the point where the admission would beforced from them. The problem you came to solve is now answered, is itnot? Is there anything to prevent you returning to Earth and writing asuccessful paper on the mystery of the Markovians?"
"You know very well there is," said Cameron with the sudden sense thatVenor was laughing gently at him. "Who on Earth would believe what youhave told me--that a handful of meek, subservient Ids had conquered themighty Markovian Nucleus?"
He paused, looking at Joyce who returned his intense gaze.
"Is that all?" said Venor finally.
"No that is not all. After taking us to the heights and showing useverything that lies beyond, are you simply going to turn us awayempty-handed?"
"What would you have us give you?"
"This," said Cameron, gesturing with his hand to include the circle ofall of them, and the community beyond the window. "We want what you havediscovered. Is your circle a closed one--or can you admit those whowould learn of your ways but are not of your race?"
Venor's smile broadened as he arose and stepped toward them, and theyfelt the warm wave of acceptance from his mind even before he spoke."This is what we brought you here to receive," he said. "But you had toask for yourselves. We wanted men of Earth in our ranks. There are manyraces and many worlds who make up the Idealists. That is why it is saidthat the Ids do not know the home world from which they originally came.It is true, they do not. We are citizens of the Universe.
"But we have never been represented by a native of Earth, which needs usbadly. Will you join us, Terrans?"
THE END
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Astounding Science Fiction_ November 1955.Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyrighton this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errorshave been corrected without note.
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