Danchekker’s expression said that there couldn’t be any other way around. “What do you mean?” he demanded.
“Instead of telling me what speeded the Lunarians up, try asking what slowed Earth down.”
Danchekker stared darkly down at his plate for a few seconds, then raised his head and showed his teeth. “The upheavals caused by the Moon’s capture,” he pronounced.
Hdller looked at him in open disbelief. “And regressed them to a point that needed tens of thousands of years to recover from? No way! A few centuries at the most, maybe, but not that much. I couldn’t buy it. Neither could Showm. Neither could Calazar.”
“I see.” Danchekker looked a bit taken aback. He attacked his bacon in silence for a while and then said, “And what alternative explanation, if any, are you offering, might I ask?”
“Something you haven’t mentioned so far,” Heller answered. “The Lunarians developed rational, scientific thinking early on, and relied on it totally from the beginnings of their civilization. By contrast Earth went off into thousands of years of believing that magic, mysticism, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy would solve its problems. It only started to change comparatively recently, and even today there’s still a lot of that around. We got wsAit to estimate the effects, and it eclipses all the other factors put together. That’s what caused the difference!”
Danchekker thought about it for a while, then replied a trifle grudgingly, “Very well.” He thrust his chin out defensively. “But I fail to see the need for any melodramatic suggestion that it poses a different question. It’s as valid to argue that the early adoption of rational methods accelerated one race as it is to say that its absence retarded the other. What point are you making?”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about it since I talked to Calazar and Showm, and asking what the reason was. Vic says everything has to have a reason, even if it takes some digging to find it. So what would the reason be for a whole planet clinging obstinately to a lot of nonsense and superstitions for thousands of years when
even a little bit of observation and common sense should have shown it doesn’t work?”
“I think perhaps you underestimate the complexities of scientific method,” Danchekker told her. “It takes centuries
scores of generations to evolve the techniques necessary to distinguish reliably between facts and fallacies, and truth and myth. Certainly it couldn’t happen overnight. What else did you expect?”
“So why didn’t that stop the Lunarians?”
“I have no idea. Have you?”
“That was the question I was leading up to.” Heller leaned forward to look at him intently across the table. “What do you think of this for a suggestion: The reason that belief in myths and magic became so deeply rooted in Earth’s cultures and persisted for so long could be that, in the earliest stage of our first civilizations, it did work?”
Danchekker gagged over the mouthful of food that he had been about to swallow and colored visibly. “What? That’s preposterous! Are you suggesting that the laws of physics that dictate the running of the Universe could have changed in the last few thousand years?”
“No, I’m not. All I’m-”
“I’ve never heard such an absurd suggestion. This whole matter is already complicated enough without introducing attempts to explain it by astrology, ESP, or whatever other inanities you have in mind.” Danchekker looked about him impatiently and sighed. “Really, it would take far too long to explain why if you are unable to distinguish between science and the banalities dispensed in adolescent magazines. Just take my word that you are wasting your time. . . mine too, I might add.”
Heller maintained her calm with some effort. “I am not suggesting anything of the kind.” An edge of strain had crept into her voice. “Kindly listen for two minutes.” Danchekker said nothing and eyed her dubiously across the table as he continued eating. She went on, “Think about this scenario. The Jevlenese have never forgotten that they’re Lambians, and we’re Cerians. They still see Earth as a rival and always have. Now put them in the situation where they’ve been taken to Thurien and are making the most of the opportunity to absorb all that Ganymean technology, and the rivals on Earth have just been sent back to square one by