27
The communications operator looked up as the supervisor came down theaisle toward him.
"Communication from the E.H.Q. ship at Eden coming in just fine," hesaid enthusiastically. He'd thought it over and decided he'd betterrepair some fences. Good job here, no use letting his irritation withthe supervisor's old-maid fussiness make him cut off his nose to spitehis face.
"See that it does," the supervisor answered sharply. He recognized theoverture for what it was, felt relieved that he wouldn't have any moreinsubordination, was willing to let bygones be bygones--after a suitableperiod of punishment. "What's been happening?" he asked with a curiositythat got the better of his desire to discipline.
"E Gray has come back out of that quartz outcropping where we lost him.He's standing there talking to the astronavigator who followed him upthe mountain."
"More of the same, I guess," the supervisor said. "Nothing's happenedfor ten days. Nothing likely to happen," he said. He turned and startedback down the aisle toward his own office.
"Wait a minute," the operator called. "Here's something."
Other operator heads raised up all down the aisle.
"Now, now; now, now!" the supervisor quarreled at them. "Get on withyour work, nothing to concern you here, none of your business."
But of course it was everybody's business. Anything different waseverybody's business. All over the world everybody was wondering aboutthe enigma of Eden, everybody speculating, everybody with a differentanswer. Some were gleeful that science had finally got its comeuppance,and felt no more than a pleasure that the bigdomes had proved theyweren't any smarter than anybody else. Others took an equal pleasure incrying woe, woe, at this proof there were mysteries beyond man'sknowing, woe, woe, now that man would be punished for trying to knowwhat he was not meant to know.
The operator took time out, in spite of the supervisor's admonishments,to listen frankly.
"They've lost sight of the E," the operator exclaimed. "No, wait aminute. There he is, down in the valley, coming out from behind a bushto talk to the pilot and the head man of the colony."
"Can't have happened like that," the supervisor grumbled. "Ten or twelvemiles from that mountain top to the valley. The ship has garbled theirreporting. Probably got behind in reporting and then just decided toskip the journey back, and pick up to make it current. There's going tobe complaints about this."
"Well, you were right here," the operator said. "You were listening. Ididn't skip anything. It wasn't my fault."
"All right, all right."
"Wait a minute," the operator said. "Here, listen in."
The supervisor's eyes grew round.
"Can't be," he exclaimed.
"All the buildings, everything's just like it was before," the operatorsaid loudly to the room at large. "All of a sudden, the way they reportit."
"They're faking the reports," the supervisor grumbled irritably. "Haveto be."
"Now, no matter how much they fake, you can't rebuild all thosebuildings in a couple hours," the operator argued.
"None of our business," the supervisor cautioned. "We just take thereports. Can't criticize us for whatever the E.H.Q. ship out there'sdoing."
"And everybody's got their clothes back on," the operator said loudly.
There was a sigh of regret up and down the aisle.
"Now the E's disappeared again," the operator said, "They're scanningall over, trying to find him."
The supervisor put down his headset with resolution.
"I'm going to my office to make a report on the sloppy way thisreporting has been done. There's going to be fur flying over these skipsand jumps, and I don't want it to be our fur. Best thing is to make thecomplaint first," he said to the room at large. "Now you call me ifthere's any more of this bollix," he said to the operator as he left.
An hour passed while the supervisor sat in his office. He wrotefuriously, scratched out, wrote some more, tore up papers and threw themin the vague direction of the wastebasket, started afresh to write somemore. How to report without stepping on anybody's toes?
His buzzer sounded softly to give him respite, and he looked up from avirtually blank piece of paper to the board. The Eden operator again.
"Oh, no," he groaned. But he left his desk at once and half trotted upthe aisle.
"Now the captain of the ship says he wants Sector Chief Hayes at once,"the operator called out. "Something very important."
"Very well," the supervisor said. "Ring him."
But Hayes didn't wait for the ring. He had been listening, red-eyed,tired, gaunt for lack of sleep.
"Give me connection," he said to the operator as soon as the lineopened.
"Bill Hayes here, Captain," he said, as soon as he received the signal."What now?"
"Mrs. Gray, the Junior E's wife, has disappeared from aboard ship," theCaptain said without any preliminaries.
"What do you mean 'disappeared'?" Hayes asked. "How could she disappearin deep space? Have you looked everywhere? Checked the lifeboats? Maybeshe took one and tried to get down to her husband by herself."
"We've looked everywhere. No lifeboats missing. No port has opened. Youought to know we wouldn't bother you until we'd checked everything outfirst."
"She can't have disappeared into thin air, thin space," Hayes quarreledback. "She must be on your ship somewhere. When was she last seen?"
"That's--ah--that's mainly why I'm calling you, Bill," the captain said."A wild tale, obviously a mistake. One of the crewmen passed herstateroom about an hour ago. Door was open and he looked in, the wayanybody does. Says he saw her standing inside her cabin embracing a man.Says he didn't stop to look close, but he was pretty sure it was E Gray.Says he knows because he's had access to the viewscope and has watched EGray on the surface of Eden."
"There's been no report of any ship leaving Eden, joining you, Captain,"Hayes said accusingly.
"Because there hasn't been any," the captain snapped back. "So it can'thave been E Gray she was embracing. That's why I called you. Looks likewe're going to have some petty scandal mixed up with everything else."
"Looks like it, then," Hayes said with a vast weariness. "Some member ofyour crew, or one of the scientists," he said. "Keep looking. Somebody'shiding her, probably to keep the scandal from breaking. But it seems oddto me that she was so anxious to get out there near her husband and thenin ten days she'd ..."
"Maybe her real anxiety was to be near somebody already assigned to theship," the captain said. "I mean, we've got to consider all thepossibilities. Somebody she knew there at E.H.Q."
"Keep checking, Captain. I'll see if the Board wants to contact EMcGinnis. Maybe he knows what's been going on around here that couldlead us to the guy who's hiding her."
"I'll keep checking, but she's not on board _my_ ship," the captainsaid. He sighed. Bill Hayes sighed. They broke connection.
Hayes made contact with the Board chairman. It took only a few minutesto spin the latest tale of woe. Another minute for the Board to decidedirect intervention.
"Now they want me to make contact with the other ship," the operatorsaid to the supervisor. "The Wheel himself wants to know if E McGinniswill talk to him."
"Well, contact it, contact it," the supervisor commanded urgently.
"I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" the operator quarreled back.
The both of them listened in on the conversation, on the grounds thattesting the quality of reception was a necessity. E McGinnis's pilot wasquite explicit.
"E McGinnis left orders that under no circumstances was he to bedisturbed," the pilot said. "He, E Gray and Mrs. Gray are in his cabin,in conference."
"E Gray! Mrs. Gray!" the chairman exploded. "Impossible. How the devildid they get into your ship?"
"Don't ask me," the pilot said in a tired voice. "I just work here. I'msitting here minding my own business. I see E McGinnis's door open. Heleans out the door and gives me my orders. I look past him and I see EGray and Mrs. Gray sitting in the room. Don't a
sk me how they got inthere. I don't know. But I do know this, I'm going to get myself a nicequiet milk run to Saturn or someplace, soon as I get back to E.H.Q. If Iever do get back."
"Now, now," the Board chairman soothed. "I'm sure there's a simpleexplanation." Crewmen willing to pilot an E around the universe werehard to find.
"Yeah? After what I've seen out here, I don't think I'd even want tohear it," the pilot said, and without apology cut off thecommunication.
28
Had the pilot been able, a moment later, to look into the E's stateroomhe would have seen still another visitor, another who had not enteredhis ship by any normal means.
Attorney General Gunderson sat in a chair facing the two E's and Linda.He seemed stunned, frozen into immobility. Only his eyes were alive,darting here and there, unbelieving. There is limit to the number ofshocks the mind can withstand, and the series had come too fast for himto adjust to them.
He too had picked up Junior E Gray as soon as he came through the archof the quartz outcropping on top of the mountain, the structure thatsomehow interfered with their visoscope's ability to penetrate and seewhat went on inside. He had been watching when Gray suddenly disappearedfrom where he had been talking with the astronavigator. That had been ashock, immediately followed by a greater one, when the ship's operatorhad scanned the valley and found Gray talking with the E's pilot and thechief of the colonists. There was no way in which the journey could havebeen made that rapidly.
He was still watching when the village, the fields, the escape ship, theE ship all had suddenly materialized before his eyes. And the peoplewere all clothed. It couldn't be done, but he had seen it. But he kepthis head. E science must be farther along than he'd realized, toproduce a miracle such as this--but it was science. He must hold tothat, otherwise ...
He saw his case begin to melt out from under him, and he made one moreeffort to regain some measure of control. He gave his own pilot ordersto land on the surface of Eden. He transmitted orders to the other twopolice ships to follow in close formation; the three of them to land andtake custody.
But the barrier still remained, and the ships could not penetrate it.
He told himself that all wasn't lost. Maybe the E was back in control ofEden, but he, Gunderson, still had a morals case. All those photographs!Some of the press and commentators might desert him, now that the Juniorhad proved adequate to the job. Unless he chose carefully, some stupidjudge might decide the means were justified by the end result. But therewere those photographs, and the world was full of Mrs. Grundy. He mighthave to back up a little bit on the incompetence of the Junior E, butMrs. Grundy would be behind him a hundred per cent on the moralsissue--when he released some of the photographs, and titillated hernasty imagination by reference to others too indecent to release.
It was then that the observer ship got a call through to him, and toldhim that the photographs, every one of them, had disappeared from theship's vault where they had been locked, and the only thing remaining inthe vault was one little slip of paper which read, "Shame on you fortaking feelthy pictures. Naughty, naughty! Calvin Gray."
The case was crumbling, but all was not lost. He still had witnesses. Hethought for a minute and began to wonder about those witnesses. Anyjudge, anybody around the courts, anybody connected with the press, andmaybe even some of the public knew that any police officer will swear toany lie to back up another police officer because he might need thefavor returned tomorrow.
Without concrete evidence ...
He suddenly found himself standing in the cabin of the E ship,confronted by E McGinnis, Junior E Gray, and Mrs. Gray. He sank down ina chair and sat frozen, immobile. Only his eyes were alive, dartingfrantically here and there as if expecting some hole to open up andswallow him--perhaps wishing one would.
"I don't know just what to do with you," Cal said a little sadly,ruefully. "Far as the E's are concerned, you've only been a minornuisance, hardly worth noticing, but your intentions were dangerous. Asfar back as man's history goes the growth of police powers immediatelypreceded and caused the fall and destruction of each culture.
"It is a law of the nature of man that he will resist the ascendancy ofany special me-and-mine group over him; that this resistance will growuntil man will even destroy himself in the attempt to destroy thatascendancy. In more recent history it was the growth, extension, andseverity of the police in controlling every activity of man thatdestroyed both the United States and Russia.
"Now you are attempting to rebuild that same police control in worldgovernment. The result will be the same. Man will destroy himself intrying to destroy you.
"We in E don't want that to happen. We see no need of it. We havealready warned that the attitude of the police toward the public is themajor cause of crime, that crime will increase with each increase ofpolice power and severity until the whole structure rots and crumbles.
"Yet man has not yet progressed far enough to know how to maintain anorganized society without some special body to enforce thatorganization. It's a problem which the E's haven't solved, probablybecause we know too little about the natural laws affecting the behaviorof man. Perhaps it is still a field belonging to non-science, becausescience doesn't know enough yet to take hold of it.
"I would suggest, Gunderson, that you turn your talents and yourorganization to solving this problem of how to build an organizedsociety instead of destroying it."
The chair where Gunderson had sat was empty.
E McGinnis looked at Cal; he too was sitting silent and immobile. But Escience had inured him to shock. He waited because it was E Gray's show,and he was letting Cal handle it.
"Where is he now?" McGinnis asked when he saw the empty chair.
"Sitting at his desk in his office back on Earth," Cal said with a grin."Our boy has a few things to think about."
"You've explained the theory back of all this"--McGinnis changed thesubject--"but I still find it incredible. It's still just theory."
"Well," Cal said, "theory comes first. Even to add two and two, youfirst have to get the idea that it can be done, a theory of how it isdone, but that still won't get you four. You've got to learn how toapply the theory.
"When I first found I knew how, I was pretty concerned. The whole basisof science is that anybody can do it, anybody who follows thestep-by-step method. It doesn't take any special gifts that can't betrained. I had visions of a world, a universe of people, in possessionof this theory and method before they were wise enough to use it, andchaos.
"But when I thought it over, I stopped worrying. The methods of scienceare also open to all. But few bother to learn them. Most prefer theirfrustrations and their miseries to making the effort which will solvethem. For centuries the libraries containing all the accumulatedknowledge and wisdom of mankind have been free and open to anybody whowants to read, but few have bothered to absorb that knowledge and thatwisdom.
"This new key we have that unlocks the door to another vista ofknowledge, another point of view whereby we can change material thingsto suit our desire, is merely another advance of science. For science,after all, is no more than organized knowledge of reality. You can'tmultiply six times six until you've learned how to add two and two. Mostpeople won't bother.
"It will be a long, long time before any significant number willgraduate through all the normal seven steps of E science to become readyfor the eighth. Some of the E's will master it, but you know how few E'sthere are. And the E's have enough restraint, wisdom, and selflessnessto use this new knowledge for the benefit of man instead of hisdetriment.
"I suspect that one has to be graduated beyond the desire to makeme-and-mine ascendant over others before he can absorb this knowledge."
"Maybe that's my trouble," McGinnis said slowly. "I've been thinking,all along, of how much power this gives the E's. Wondering if even theE's should have that much power over others."
Linda spoke up.
"E McGinnis," she said, "Cal has solved the problem of what happened tothe
colonists, why they didn't communicate. Do you think this willqualify him for his big E?"
Both men burst into laughter.
"No question of it, Linda," E McGinnis said with a chuckle. "But I doubtit really matters to E Gray, now. He can do things none of the rest ofus can do, and the real question now is whether we have the right tocall ourselves Seniors until we can match his ability."
"I think," Cal said slowly, "we'd better recommend to E.H.Q. that thecolonists be withdrawn from Eden, assigned somewhere else. I've left theshield around the planet so none can enter or leave without the eighthkey. I can unlock the door and close it again. Perhaps Eden shouldbecome the next step for the E, the next hurdle he must cross.
"When I've sent my ship and crew back to Earth, and we've removed allthe colonists, it might be a good idea to restore Eden to what it waswhen I arrived--a place where no tools will work, no physical tools. Toqualify for E, a man will be put on the island, where he can live as welived, to work out the step-by-step method. When he's ready, he can gointo the thought-amplifier on top of the mountain, and if his mind isopen enough to the potentials he'll receive the final step ofinstruction--as I did.
"One by one, as the E's shake free of their present projects, they cantake this next step."
"I'm not working on any project right now," E McGinnis said hopefully.
"I'll be right back," Cal said with a grin, "and we'll get started onit."
The chair where he had been sitting was empty.
29
Cal stood within the crystal amphitheater atop the mountain and watchedthe interplay of lights until he felt communion come.
Rapture! Joy!
Question?
"Be patient," he said. "There will be more, and more, and more.
"You had an advantage," he reminded Them. "You started with acrystalline vibration nearer to the force field than that possible inprotoplasm. We've had to come up the hard way.
"But we have come up.
"You had no competition. We've had to fight for our very lives everyinch of the way, endure the setbacks lasting for centuries, millennia.It is no wonder that the me-and-mine-ascendant concept has dominated allour thought, and does still. Without it, we'd not have survived at all.
"It takes time to outgrow it, to learn we can survive without it. Fivehundred years after Copernicus, a survey of the high school students inthe United States revealed that a third of them still rejected hisknowledge, still believed the Earth to be at the center of the universeand man was the reason why the universe had been created at all. But twothirds had adjusted.
"More important, there _was_ a Copernicus.
"Don't sell man short because he's slow to learn, and you are impatientfor fuller, deeper exploration of the truths in reality. He has much tooffer you, as you to him. Competition for survival has given himingenuity.
"Once all learned men believed the Earth to be the center of theuniverse, but there _was_ a Copernicus who asked the question, 'What ifit isn't so?'
"Millions of men watched apples fall to the ground, but one _did_ ask ifthis might not be the key to the structure of the universe, the balanceof the stars.
"Billions watched the stars, but finally one _did_ ask, 'What if thelight be curved instead of straight?'
"There is capacity in man, this protoplasmic life, that had to learn aningenuity which might surpass even yours.
"This is not the final door in the corridor of thought. Still otherdoors, on down the corridor, are yet to be explored. And you may needthese special gifts of man to open them, as he has needed this new roomof thought.
"Be patient. A million or a billion may come here to seek the methodthat can change things to fit the equation of desire, before one comeswho asks a question even you have not conceived.
"But someday he _will_ come--and ask."
The lights danced faster now in patterns of delight.
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