Gorbel, with facts whose validity he alone knew and whose relevance he alone could judge. He was, in short, loading the dice, and the last residues of Corbel’s tolerance were evapo-rating rapidly.
“Of course there was resistance back there at the beginning,” Hoqqueah said. “The kind of mind that had only recently been persuaded that colored men are human beings was quick to take the attitude that an Adapted Manany Adapted Manwas the social inferior of the ‘primary’ or basic human type, the type that lived on Earth. But it was also a very old idea on the Earth that basic humanity inheres in the mind, not in the form.
“You see. Captain, all this might still have been prevented, had it been possible to maintain the attitude that changing the form even in part makes a man less of a man than he was in the ‘primary’ state. But the day has ,come when that attitude is no longer tenablea day that is the greatest of all inoral watersheds for our race, the day that is to unite all our divergent currents of attitudes toward each other into one common reservoir of brotherhood and purpose. You and I are very fortunate to be on the scene to see it.”
“Very interesting,” Gorbel said coldly. “But all those things happened a long time ago, and we know very little about this part of the galaxy these days. Under the circumstances which you’ll find clearly written out in the log, together with the appropriate regulationsI’m forced to place the ship on emergency alert beginning tomorrow, and continuing until your team disembarks. I’m afraid that means that henceforth all passengers will be required to stay in quarters.”