Toivo was silent. Of course, he didn’t understand a thing. Komov had thought it all up and arranged it. Gorbovsky knew only as much as Komov felt he should be told. I could imagine the conversation they had in the bedroom. But Toivo Glumov understood nothing.
I took him by the elbow and told Gorbovsky, “Leonid Andreyevich, we’re leaving.”
Gorbovsky nodded.
“Go, of course. Thanks. You were a big help. We’ll be seeing each other, and more than once.”
When we got out on the porch, Toivo said, “Perhaps you will explain the meaning of this?”
“You see, he’s changed his mind about dying,” I said.
“Why?”
“That’s a stupid question, Toivo. Forgive me, please…”
Toivo paused and then said, “I am a fool. That is, I never felt like such a fool in my life… Thanks for your concern, Big Bug.”
I grinned. We went down the stairs to the landing square in silence. Some man was going up the stairs slowly.
“All right,” Toivo said. “But should I continue work on the theme?”
“Of course.”
“But they laughed at me!”
“On the contrary. You were a hit”
Toivo muttered something to himself. At the first landing, we found ourselves with the man who had been going up the stairs. It was deputy director of the Kharkov branch of IMI, Daniil Alexandrovich Logovenko, rosy and very worried.
“Greetings,” he said. “I’m not too late?”
“Not too,” I replied. “He’s waiting for you.”
And here D. A. Logovenko gave Toivo Glumov a conspiratorial wink and then hurried up the stairs, now in a rush. Toivo, squinting meanly, watched him go.
[End of Document 21.]
DOCUMENT 22: A Confidential Memorandum
CONFIDENTIAL:
FOR MEMBERS OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE WORLD COUNCIL!
No. 115
CONTENTS: Transcript of the conversation which took place at Leonid’s house (Kraslava, Latvia) 14 May 99.
PARTICIPANTS: L. A. Gorbovsky, member of the World Council; G. Yu. Komov, member of the World Council, Acting President of Urals-North Section of COMCON-2; D. A. Logovenko, Deputy Director, Kharkov Branch IMI.
KOMOV: You mean to say that you do not differ in any way from an ordinary man?
LOGOVENKO: The difference is enormous, but… Now, when I am sitting here talking to you, I differ from you only in the awareness that I am not like you. That is one of my levels… rather wearying, incidentally. It is hard to do, but I’m used to it, but the majority of us have grown accustomed to that level forever… But on this level, my differences can be discovered only with the aid of special apparatus.
KOMOV: You want to say that on other levels…
LOGOVENKO: Yes. On other levels, everything is different. Different consciousness, different physiology… different image, even…
KOMOV: You mean, on other levels you are no longer human?
LOGOVENKO: We aren’t human. Don’t let it confuse you that we are born human from humans…
GORBOVSKY: Forgive me, Daniil Alexandrovich. Could
LOGOVENKO: … interfere. And not only because of that. We assumed that the secret should be kept first of all in your own interests, in the interests of humanity. I would like you to be fully clear on that issue. We are not people. We are Ludens. Do not fall into error. We are not the result of biological evolution. We appeared because humanity has reached a certain level of sociotechnological organization. We could have discovered the third-impulse system in the human organism even a hundred years ago, but it only became possible to initiate it at the beginning of this century, while keeping a Luden on the spiral of psychophysiological development, to lead him from level to level to the very end… that is, in your concepts, to bring up a Luden, only became possible quite recently —
GORBOVSKY: Just a minute! Does that mean that the third impulse exists in every human organism?
LOGOVENKO: Unfortunately not, Leonid Andreyevich. That’s the tragedy. The third impulse is found with a probability of no more than one one-hundred-thousandth. We still don’t know where it came from or why. Most likely, it is the result of some ancient mutation.
KOMOV: One one-hundred-thousandth… that’s not so little when translated to our billions. So, it means a schism?
LOGOVENKO: Yes. And that’s why it was secret. Don’t get me wrong. Ninety percent of Ludens are totally uninterested in the fate of humanity or in humanity. But there is a group of those like me. We do not want to forget that we are flesh of our flesh and that we have one homeland, and for many years we have been working on how to soften the consequences of the inevitable schism… For it looks as if humanity is being divided into a higher and a lower race. What could be more revolting? Of course, the analogy is superficial and at its root incorrect, but you can’t avoid the feeling of humiliation at the thought that one of you has gone far beyond the limits that are impassable for a hundred thousand. And that one can never lose the guilt over it. And incidentally, the worst part is that this schism goes through families, through friendships…
KOMOV: Does that mean that the metagom loses his former ties?
LOGOVENKO: That varies. It’s not as simple as you think. The most typical model of the Ludens’ attitude toward man is the attitude of an experienced and very busy adult for a cute but terminally annoying kid. Then picture the relationship: Luden and his father, Luden and his best friend, Luden and his teacher…
GORBOVSKY: Luden and his girlfriend…
LOGOVENKO: It’s a tragedy, Leonid Andreyevich. A real tragedy…
KOMOV: I see you take the situation to heart. Then perhaps it would be easier to stop all this? After all, it’s in your hands.
LOGOVENKO: Doesn’t it seem amoral to do that?
KOMOV: Doesn’t it seem amoral to subject humanity to a shock like that? To create an inferiority complex in mass psychology, to give youth knowledge of the limits of its possibilities?
LOGOVENKO: That’s why I came to you — to seek a way out.
KOMOV; There is only one way. You must leave Earth.
LOGOVENKO: Excuse me. Who exactly is “we”?
KOMOV: You metagoms.
LOGOVENKO: Gennady Yurevich, I repeat: in the great majority of cases, Ludens do not live on Earth. All their interests; their lives, are beyond Earth. Damn it, you don’t live in bed! Only the midwives like me and the homopsychologists have permanent ties with Earth… and a few dozen of the most miserable of us, those who cannot tear themselves away from family and loved ones!
GORBOVSKY: Ah!
LOGOVENKO: What did you say?
GORBOVSKY: Nothing, nothing. I’m listening to you attentively.
KOMOV: Then you mean to say that interests of metagoms and earthlings do not coincide?
LOGOVENKO: Yes.
KOMOV: Is cooperation possible?
LOGOVENKO: In what area?
KOMOV: That’s for you to say.
LOGOVENKO: I’m afraid that you cannot be of help to us. As for us… you know, there’s an old joke. In our circumstances it sounds rather cruel, but I’ll tell it. You can teach a bear to ride a bicycle, but will the bear derive any benefit or pleasure from it? Sorry about that. But you yourself said that our interests do not coincide. (Pause) Of course, if there were a threat to Earth and humanity, we would come to your aid without a second thought and with all our power.
KOMOV: Thank you for that at least.
(A long pause, with gurgling of liquid, glass tinkling against glass, gulps, sighs)
GORBOVSKY: Yes, this is a serious challenge to our optimism. But if you think about it, humanity has accepted more frightening challenges. And I don’t understand you, Gennady. You were such a serious adherent of vertical progress! Well, here it is, vertical progress! In the purest form! Humanity, spread out on the flowering plain beneath the clear skies, has made a surge upward. Of course, not the whole crowd, but why does that upset you so? It’s always been that way. And always will, probably… Humanity always went into the future with the shoots of its best representatives. And as for what Daniil Alexandrovich tells us, that he is not a man but a Luden, that’s all terminology… You’re still people and, moreover, earthlings, and you can’t get away from that. It’s too soon.
KOMOV: You, Leonid Andreyevich, sometimes astonish me with your lack of seriousness. It’s schism! Understand, schism! And you’re just blathering kindly, forgive me for saying so…
GORBOVSKY: You’re so… hot-tempered, dear fellow. Well, of course it’s schism! I wonder where you’ve seen progress without schism? Where have you seen progress without stock, without bitterness, without humiliations? Without those who move far ahead and those who stay behind?
KOMOV: Well, really! “And those who will destroy me I greet with a welcoming hymn!”
GORBOVSKY: That’s not quite opposite… How above: “And those who surpass me, I see off with a welcoming hymn.”
LOGOVENKO: Gennady Yurevich, permit me to try to console you. We have very serious reasons for supposing that this schism will not be the final one. Beside the third impulse in the human organism, we have discovered a fourth low-frequency one and a fifth — for now unnamed.