machine.
It was like no other machine ever built by man. Everything, apparently, was input. It could
take half the power of the gigantic leybyrdite-built generators of the gigantic
leybyrdite-built Explorer, but there was no visible or perceptible output of any kind. There
were no controls; no buttons or meters or dials or gauges. All the immense power of that
machine would be controlled purely by thought. If that machine performed at all, it would
perform at the immeasurable speed of thought.
His hunch was that the thing would work. Since he could work the Fifth Nume alone (no
woman can even perceive that Nume) as well as he and Barbara together could work the
Fourth, he was practically certain that it would work. Certain enough to let the others
who had insisted on coming along, even Barbara, do so: but no one else. And most
certainly not the kids. Something might happen.
Shortly after Dann’s last protest to Adams, the psiontists aboard the Explorer gathered
in the control room, around Deston’s enigmatic “Z-gun.”
“But what could happen, Babe?” Bernice asked, nervously.
º Don’t worry, Bun. What is going to happen, as nearly as. I can express it, is that I’m
going to transform the coordinates of those ships from the continuous phase to the
discontinuous phase of Reality; using just enough energy to control the balance.”
“You are not answering her question,” Adams said. “There is an indeterminate and at
present indeterminable probability that any disturbance of equilibrium will initiate an
irreversibly accelerating transformation of the entire cosmos, so that . . .”
“Wow(” Cecily exclaimed. “It’s bad enough, thinking of destroying one whole planet, but
the whole cosmos!” “Compared to the discontinuous imbalances always there?” Deston
protested. “Have a heart, Doc! And you two gals, listen-what Doe calls a probability isn’t
even an actual possibility-it’s out beyond nine sigmas exactly as possible as that an
automatic screw machine running six-thirty-two hex nuts would accidentally turn out a
cash-register full of money. If it wasn’t safe do you think I’d have Bobby here? Hell, I
wouldn’t be here myself!”
“Young man, your reasoning is deplorable,” Adams said. “Your data is entirely insufficient
for the computation of sigma in this case. Furthermore, the term `probability,’ in its
meaningful sense, is defined by . . .”
“Meaningful sense and all, we’ll drop all that stuff right now,” Barbara said, unusually
sharply for her. “Besides, it’s about time to, isn’t it?”
It was, and Deston stretched out on a davenport and closed his eyes. When the first
Communist warship appeared in subspace he stiffened suddenly and it vanished. As
more and more warships immerged and were caught in whatever it was that Deston and
his Z-gun were doing, nothing seemed to be happening in the Explorer at all. The
machine never had done anything, apparently, and Deston’s body was stiffly rigid all the
time.
Adams, leaving Stella behind, bored into that psionic murk with every iota of his psionic
might. He perceived much-no two of those disappearances occurred in exactly the same
way-and he would remember every detail of everything he perceived.
When the ghastly performance was over Deston got up, jerked his head at Barbara, and
the two walked out of the room with their arms tightly around each other. No words
passed between them; or any thoughts except the knowledge of complete oneness.
Neither words nor thoughts would do any good. It had had to be done and he was the
only one who could do it. So he had done it.
They would have to live with it. That was the way it was. Nothing could be done about it.
Adams, on the other hand-tall, lean, gray-haired, gray-eyed, gray-clad Adams-was
purring like a tomcat full of canaries. “Fabulous! Utterly priceless!” he enthused, to
anyone who cared to listen. “Thus is probably the greatest break-through of all time! The
data we have obtained here will undoubtedly be the basis for a completely new system
of science!”
Just before the adjournment of the board meeting following the fall of New Russia,
Maynard said:
“Since science has not yet devised a recorder of thought, I will sum up briefly, for the
minutes, the sense of this meeting.
“The political ‘situation on Earth, while better than it was, is still bad. We have discussed
strategy and have formulated plans by virtue of which we expect to win the next election.
“Plastics’ serf world presents many problems, but they appear to be more a matter of
time than of intrinsic impossibility. The psiontists of that world are working out a program
of rehabilitation that promises excellent results.
“The ordinary citizens of New Russia will not present any problems. The non-psionic
commissars and hardcore Party members will not be allowed to present any problems.
The New Russian psiontists do, however, present a very serious problem; one that has
taken up practically all of the time of this meeting.
“Psionics is necessarily ethical, but ethics is not at present an absolute. Thus most of the
New Russian psiontists, steeped from infancy in Communist doctrine and never exposed
to any except Communist thought, are as thoroughly convinced that Communism is right
as we are that it is wrong. This difference of opinion in these cases, while total at
present, is probably not irreconcilable. It is believed that when these uninformed persons
have studied all aspects of the truth they will of their own accord come around to our
way of thinking.
“There are some well-informed Communists psiontists, however, who believe so
thoroughly that Communism is right that they would rather become martyrs to its cause
than renounce it. Feodr Ilyowicz, a man of wide learning, knowledge, and experience,
was one. What can be done about such men as he was?
“Are we right? We do not know. We cannot know.
`All we can do-what we must do-is what eighty percent or more of this Board believes to
be right.
“Our prime tenet, the solid bed-rock foundation upon which the Galactic Federation is
being built, defines `right’ as that which, in the opinion of at least four fifths of the
membership of its Board of Directors, is for the best good of humanity as a whole.
“It is a fact that about seventy percent of all known human population is non-Communist.
This Board is in virtually unanimous agreement that about ninety six percent of all people
now under Communist rule as we know it would be vastly better off under Galaxianism;
would live much fuller, freer, and better lives than under Communism. Thus, we believe
that Galaxianism is for the best good of about ninety eight and eight tenths percent of all
humanity known to us.
“More than the required four fifths of us have agreed upon three points. First: each such
psiontist as Feodr Ilyowicz was will be watched. Second: no general ruling will be made,
but each such case will be decided upon its own merits. Third, the penalty of death will
not be imposed.
“If there is no other business requiring our attention at this time, a voiced motion for
adjournment is now in order.”