The Dark Design by Phillip Jose Farmer

“In what language?”

“Eh? In the only one in which I was then fluent, my native speech, the most beautiful of all the tongues of Earth. The thing spoke not the most correct of French, but I understood him.

‘ “Savinien de Cyrano II de Bergerac,’ he said., giving me my full nomenclature.

” ‘You have the advantage of me, sir,’ I said. Though my heart was pounding hard and I felt the most intense need of pissing, I conducted myself most admirably. By then I could see, even in that faintly starlit darkness, that he was not overtly belligerent. If he had a weapon, he had concealed it under his huge cloak. Though I was somewhat distracted, I could not but wonder why Livy, a light sleeper, had not been awakened. But she slept on, snoring lightly and prettily.

” ‘You may call me whatever you wish,’ he said. ‘My name is not important at this time. And if you wonder why your woman is not also awake, it is because I have made sure that she will not. Oh, no!’ he said, as, furious, I tried to get up, ‘she is not harmed in the least. She has been drugged and will awake in the morning without even a headache.’

“By that time, I discovered that I, or at least apart of me, had also been drugged. My legs would not function, though, strangely, they did not feel leaden or numb. They just wouldn’t work. Naturally, I was furious at the liberties taken with my person, but there was little I could do about it.

“The stranger then pulled up a stool and sat down by me.

” ‘Listen, and then determine for yourself if I am not worth listening to,’ he said.

“And he told me a most amazing tale, Jill, the like of which it is evident that you have not heard. He said that he was one of the beings who had resurrected us. They called themselves Ethicals. He would not go into detail about their background or where they came from or anything like that. He did not have enough time for that. In fact, if he were caught-by his own people, mind you-it would be bad indeed for him.

“I had many questions, of course, but when I opened my mouth, he told me to keep quiet and listen. He would visit me again, he said, perhaps more than once. Then he would answer most of my ques­tions. Meanwhile, I was to understand this! We had not been given life so that we could live forever. We were just subjects of scientific experiments, and when the experiments were finished, we would be finished. We’d die for the last time, forever.”

“What kind of experiments?”

“Well, it was more than just experiments. It was also a historical project. His people wanted to collect data on history, on anthropolo­gy, and so forth. They were also interested in finding out what kind of societies we humans would form when we were so mixed togeth­er. How would people change under certain conditions?

“He said that many groups would be allowed to develop without any interference from his people at all. But some would be influ­enced, some subtly, some by more outright methods. The project would take a long time, perhaps several hundred years. Then it would be finit for the project and finit for us. Back to dust we would go-forever.

“I said, “That does not sound so ethical to me, sir. Why do they deny to us what they have-eternal life?’

“He said, ‘That is because they are not truly ethical. Despite their high opinions of themselves, they are cruel, as the scientist who tortures animals to advance science is cruel. But he has his justifica­tions, his rationalization.

‘ “You see, the scientist is doing some good, being ethical in one sense. It is true that as a result of this project, a few of you will become immortal. But only a few.’

” ‘How is that?’ I said.

“And then he told me about the entity which the Church of the Second Chance calls the ka. You know of this, Jill?”

Jill said, “I’ve attended many of their lectures.”