didn't. Why not?"
"When I saw what their efficiency really meant--"
"You changed your mind before you knew about the transmitters?"
"Yes."
"Then you're libeling yourself. Don't trap yourself in anotherself-delusion, Edward. All that's happened is that you've grown up."
Dirrul said slowly, feeling for words that would express the idea ashe felt it, "When I was in the center of the galaxy, looking out onspace, I almost grasped a new concept but I lost it when the Agronianpatrol attacked me. It's coming back.
"Time and space seem to be one and the same. Neither exists as anobjective reality. There is no past and no future--all of it occurseternally in the instant of my own being. I am everything andnothing--infinity and a speck lost in space."
"Thus you discover the Rational Potential," Dr. Kramer smiled. "Ithink you're ready for the space-pilot promotional, Edward." After apause Dr. Kramer inquired, "Did you see the Chief of Vinin, Edward?"
"Then you know about that too?"
"I've guessed--it seems likely."
"I scraped off the putty and the face color. Beneath it he was anEarthman. A hundred thousand of them rule the Confederacy."
"All time and space, forever occurring for each of us in the instantof now! Yes, he would be an Earthman, Edward--quite logically. Bothgood and evil begin with the same source. Both have the same RationalPotential. The act of being has always been the same struggle ofconstant forces, between the absolute and the relative. The time neverchanges nor the event but merely the passing illusion of place."
Shaking his head the chubby professor departed. Dirrul closed hiseyes, at peace with himself.
* * * * *
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