“But why should that be?” Hunt asked. “Why should the Ganymeans feel that we have some unique advantage, especially with their different background? They achieved the same things . .
and more.”
“Because of the time it’s taken you to do it,” she said.
“Time?”
“Your rate of advancement. It’s stupendous! Haven’t Earthmen
realized? No, I don’t suppose there’s any reason why they should.” She looked at him again, seemingly at a loss for a second. “How long ago did Man harness steam? It took you less than seventy years from learning to fly to reach your Moon. Twenty years after you invented transistors half your world was being run by computers. . . .”
“That’s good, compared to Minerva?”
“Good! It’s miraculous! It makes our own development pale into insignificance. And it’s getting faster all the time! It’s because you attack Nature with the same innate aggressiveness that you hurl at anything that stands in your way. You don’t hack each other to pieces or bomb whole cities anymore, but the same instinct is still there in your scientists, engineers . . . your businessmen, your politicians. They all love a good fight. They thrive on it. That’s the difference between us. The Ganymean learns for knowledge and finds that he solves problems as a by-product; the Earthman takes on a problem and finds that he’s learned something when he’s solved it, but it’s the kick he gets out of fighting and winning that matters. Garuth summed it up fairly well when I was talking to him yesterday. I asked him if he thought that any of the Earthmen really believed in this God they talk about. Know what he said?”
“What’d he say?”
“‘They will once they’ve made Him.”
Hunt couldn’t help grinning at Garuth’s bemusement that was at the same time a compliment. He was about to reply when ZORAC spoke into his ear in its own voice:
“Excuse me, Dr. Hunt.”
“Yes?”
“A Sergeant Brukhov wants to talk for a second. Are you accepting calls?”
“Excuse me a minute,” he said to Shilohin. “Okay. Put him on.”
“Dr. Hunt?” The voice of one of the UNSA pilots came through clearly.
“Here.”
“Sorry to bother you, but we’re sorting out the arrangements for getting everybody back to Pithead. I’m taking a transporter back half an hour from now and I’ve got a couple of empty seats. Also there’s a Ganymean ship leaving about an hour later and
some of the guys are hitching a ride on it. You’re on the list to go; it’s your choice which way.”
“Any idea who’s going on the Ganymean ship?”
“Don’t know who they are, but they’re standing right in front of me. I’m in the big room that the conference was held in.”
“Give me a shot, would you?” Hunt asked.
He activated his wrist unit and observed the view being picked up by Brukhov’s headband. It showed a group of faces that Hunt recognized at once, all of them from the labs at Pithead. Carizan was there. . . so was Frank Towers.
“Thanks for the offer,” Hunt said. “I’ll go with them though.”
“Okay. . . oh. . . hang on a sec. . .” Indistinct background noises, then Brukhov again. “One of them wants to know where the hell you’ve got to.”
“Tell him I’ve found the bar.”
More noises.
“He wants to know where the hell that is.”
“Okay, look over at the wall,” Hunt replied. “Now follow it along to your left. . . a bit farther. . .” He watched the image move across the screen. “Hold it there. You’re looking at the main door.”
“Check.”
“Through there, turn right and follow the passage. They can’t miss it. Drinks are on the house; order through ZORAC.”
“Okay, I got it. They say they’ll see you there in a coupla minutes. Over and out.”
“Channel cleared down,” ZORAC informed him.
“Sorry about that,” Hunt said to Shilohin. “We’ve got company on the way.”
“Earthmen?”
“Bunch of drunks from up north. I made the mistake of telling them where we are.”
She laughed-he could recognize the sound now-and then, slowly, her mood became serious again. “You strike me as a very rational and level-headed Earthman. There is something that we have never mentioned before because we were unsure of the reactions it might produce, but I feel it is something that we can talk about here.”