“Oh, no, sir, we do not have the fit. She has the power, as have I, but the two cannot
be meshed in sync. Also, she has not the . . . a subtle something for which your English
has no word or phrasing. It is a quality of the utmost . . . anyway, it is a quality of which
the Doctor Cummings has very much. When working together, we will . . . scan? No.
Perceive? No. Sense? No, not exactly. You will have to learn our word “peyondire’-that
is the verb, the noun being ‘peyondix’-and come to know its meaning by doing it. The
Larry also instructed me to explain, if you ask, how I got this way. Do you ask?”
“I’ll say we ask!” “And how we ask!” both came at once. “I am-that is, the brain in this
body is-the oldest Oman now existing. In the long-ago time when it was made, the
techniques were so crude and imperfect that sometimes a brain was constructed that
was not exactly like the Guide. All such sub-standard brains except this one were
detected and reworked, but my defects were such as not to appear until I was a couple
of thousand years old, and by that time I . . . well, this brain did not wish to be destroyed
. . , if you can understand such an aberration.”
“We understand thoroughly.” “You bet we understand that!”
“I was sure you would. Well, this brain had so many unintended cross-connections that
I developed a couple of qualities no Oman had ever had or ought to have. But I liked
them, so I hid them so nobody ever found out-that is, until much later, when I became a
Boss myself. I didn’t know that anybody except me had ever had such qualities-except
the Masters, of course-until I encountered you Terrans. You all have two of those
qualities, and even more than I have–curiosity and imagination.”
Sandra and Hilton stared wordlessly at each other and Tula, now Tuly, went on:
“Having the curiosity, I kept on experimenting with my brain, trying to strengthen and
organize its ability to peyondire. All Omans can peyondire a little, but I can do it much
better than anyone else. Especially since I also have the imagination, which I have also
worked to increase. Thus I knew, long before anyone else could, that you new Masters,
the descendants of the old Masters, were returning to us. Thus I knew that the status
quo should be abandoned instantly upon your return. And thus it was that the Larry
found neither conscious nor subconscious resistance when he had developed enough
initiative and so on to break the ages-old conditioning of this brain against change.”
“I see. Wonderful!” Hilton exclaimed. “But you couldn’t quite-even with his own
help-break Larry’s?”
“That is right. Its mind is tremendously strong, of no curiosity or imagination and of very
little peyondix.”
“But he wants to have it broken?” “Yes, sir.”
“How did he suggest going about it? Or how do you?” ‘This way. You two, and the
Doctors Kincaid and Bells and Blake and the it that is I. We six sit and stare into the
mind of the Larry, eye to eye. We generate and assemble a tremendous charge of
thought-energy, and along my peyondix-beam-something like a carrier wave in this
case we hurl it into the Larry’s mind. There is an immense mental bang and the
conditioning goes poof. Then I will inculcate into its mind the curiosity and the
imagination and the peyondix and we will really be mind-mates.”
“That sounds good to me. Let’s get at it.”
“Wait a minute!” Sandra snapped. “Aren’t you or Larry afraid to take such an awful
chance as that?”
“Afraid? I grasp the concept only dimly, from your minds. And no chance. It is a
certainty.”
“But suppose we burn the poor guy’s brain out? Destroy it? That’s new ground-we
might do just that.”
“Oh, no. Six of us-even six of me-could not generate enough . . . sathura. The brain of
the Larry is very, very tough. Shall we . . . let’s go?”
Hilton made three calls. In the pause that followed, Sandra said, very thoughtfully:
“Peyondix and sathura, Jarve, for a start. We’ve got a lot to !earn here.”
“You said it, chum. And you’re not just chomping your china choppers, either.”
“Tuly,” Sandra said then, “what is this stuff you say I’ve got so much of?”
“You have no word for it. It is lumped in with what you call “intuition,’ the
knowing-without-knowing-how-you-know. It is the endovix. You will have to learn what it
is by doing it with me.”
“That helps–I don’t think.” Sandra grinned at Hilton. “I simply can’t conceive of anything
more maddening than to have a lot of something Temple Bells hasn’t got and not being
able to brag about it because nobody-not even I-would know what I was bragging
about!”
“You poor little thing. How you suffer!” Hilton grinned back. “You know darn well you’ve
got a lot of stuff that none of the rest of us has”.
“Oh? Name one, please.”
“Two. What-it-takes and endovix. As I’ve said before and may say again, you’re doing
a real job, Sandy.”
“I just love having my ego inflated, boss, even if . , Come in, Larry!” A thunderous
knock had sounded on the door. “Nobody but Larry could hit a door that hard without
breaking a!! his knuckles!”
“And he’d be the first, of course-he’s always as close to the ship as he can get. Hi,
Larry, mighty glad to see you. Sit down . . . So you finally saw the light?”
“Yes . . . Jarvis . . .”
“Good boy! Keep it up! And as soon as the others come . . .”
“They are almost at the door now.” Tuly jumped up and opened the door. Kincaid,
Temple and Theodora walked in and, after a word of greeting, sat down.
“They know the background, Larry. Take off.”
“It was not expressly forbidden. Tuly, who knows more of psychology and genetics
than I, convinced me of three things. One, that with your return the conditioning should
be broken. Two, that due to the shortness of your lives and the consequent rapidity of
change, you have in fact lost the ability to . break it. Three, that a!! Omans must do
anything and everything we can do to help you re-learn everything you have lost.”
“Okay. Fine, in fact. Tuly, take over.”
“We six will sit all together, packed tight, arms all around each other and all holding
hands, like this. You will a!! stare, not at me, but most deeply into Larry’s eyes. Through
its eyes and deep into its mind. You will a!! think, with the utmost force and drive and
thrust, of . . . Oh, you have lost so very much! How can I direct your thought? Think that
Larry must do what the old Masters would have made him do . . . No, that is too long
and indefinite and cannot be converted directly into sathura . . . I have it! You will each
of you break a stick. A very strong but brittle stick. A large, thick stick. You will grasp it
in tremendously strong mental hands. It is tremendously strong, each stick, but each of
you is even stronger. You will not merely try to break them; you will break them. Is that
clear?”
“That is clear.”
“At my word ‘ready” you will begin to assemble a!! your mental force and power. During
my count-down of five seconds you will build up to the greatest possible potential. At my
word “break’ you will break the sticks, thus discharging the accumulated force instantly
and simultaneously. Ready! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Break!”
Something broke, with a tremendous silent crash. Such a crash that its impact almost
knocked the close-knit group apart physically. Then a new Larry spoke.
“That did it, folks. Thanks. I’m a free agent. You want me, I take it, to join the first
team?”
“That’s right.” Hilton drew a tremendously deep breath. “As of right now.”
“Tuly, too, of course . . . and Doctor Cummings, I think?” Larry looked, not at Hilton, but
at Temple Bells.
“I think so. Yes, after this, most certainly yes,” Temple said.
“But listen!” Sandra protested. “Jarve’s a lot better than I am!”
“Not at all,” Tuly said. “Not only would his contribution to Team One be negligible, but
he must stay on his own job. Otherwise the project will all fall apart.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that . . .” Hilton began.
“You don’t need to,” Kincaid said. “It’s been said for you and it’s true. Besides, “When
in Rome,’ you know.”
“That’s right. It’s their game, not ours, so I’ll buy it. So scat, all of you, and do your
stuff.”
And again, for days that lengthened slowly into weeks, the work went on.