“And then, in the middle of the twenty-first century, two doctors — a great physiologist and a great psychologist — built the first peace machine. This was one of the most important inventions in the history of the human race. Suddenly, man had a simple method of releasing all the tensions that had made him so destructive. In the past, they had invented various drugs that had a similar effect, but men became addicted to them and wasted their lives. The peace machine was not addictive — it simply left them relaxed and full of energy and courage. Mental illness almost disappeared. So did violent crime. Wars also became increasingly rare. For a while, men congratulated themselves on having solved their greatest problem, and the two scientists — Chater and Takahashi — were regarded almost as saints — Takahashi became president of the federated Afro-European states. The population rate also began to fall, so that by the year 2100 there were less human beings on earth than in 1900.
“Yet by that time it had become clear that the greatest of all problems remained. Man had not solved the secret of happiness. In spite of the low crime rate and the freedom from stress, men still felt strangely unfulfilled. They felt that life should be something more than a peaceful, pleasant routine, and that man needed new worlds to conquer. And since they knew there were no such worlds in their own solar system, they began to experiment with space craft in an effort to reach the stars. They had received signals from space that told them there was intelligent life in the star cluster called Alpha Centauri. But even the light from Centauri takes five years to reach the earth. Their fastest space craft would take centuries to reach the nearest star. They decided that the answer was to build space craft that were like miniature planets, containing gardens and rivers — even mountains. The first of these was launched in the year 2100 and set out for the planetary system of Proxima Centauri. Twenty years later, it was overtaken by the first of a new type of space craft with laser drive — an energy that enabled them to reach half the speed of light. The first craft to reach the Centauri system arrived in the year 2130 and established a small colony called New Earth. But most of its inhabitants became homesick and spent another ten years returning.
“Back on earth, the situation remained much as before. The crime rate had started to rise again, because people were beginning to commit crimes out of boredom. But at least men were intelligent enough to understand the nature of the problem. It was simply that man had evolved much too fast. It had taken him more than a million years to change from a cave dweller into a city dweller, but a mere seven thousand years — less than three hundred generations — to change from a city dweller into a space explorer. Even his body was not ready for the change. It was made for hard work and effort, not for sitting in office chairs. All his instincts were directed towards struggle, and he felt suffocated by his comfortable, peaceful civilisation. Men even began to look back nostalgically on the days when war and crime made life more dangerous. A famous biologist wrote a book asserting that the human race would finally die of boredom.
“At that point men suddenly learned that life was in danger of being destroyed by a radioactive comet. It was like a great awakening. Now they had one single aim — to avert the catastrophe. At first they thought of destroying the comet, or trying to divert it, but it was simply too big — fifty thousand miles in diameter. When it became obvious that the collision was inevitable, and that it would occur in less than five years, they began to devote their immense technical resources to building more than a thousand giant space transports. Other scientists began a race to find ways of making human beings immune to radioactivity, by studying the scorpions who are able to absorb hundreds of times as much radiation as animals. They thought they had probably discovered the solution, but few human beings were willing to try it. In the year 2175, the earth was finally evacuated. Six weeks later, the comet passed close to earth and brushed it with its tail. It destroyed nine-tenths of all animal life, including most of the human beings who stayed behind.
The last of the space transports left the solar system a few weeks later. An astronomer on board took the last photographs of the comet as it swung around the sun and headed out into space. And he saw something that baffled him. The tail of a comet always points away from the sun, because it is created by the pressure of sunlight on the light gases. Yet as Opik began to leave the solar system, its tail was apparently still pointing backwards. Most scientists refused to accept the evidence of the photographs, because they said it was impossible. But a few began to wonder whether the collision between the comet and the earth was really the million to one chance they had all supposed. . .
“This tower, and forty-nine more like it, were built in various parts of the earth. This was the first to be built. It was originally intended to be a museum — or time capsule, as they called it — containing the sum of all human knowledge. It is also designed to gather information about what happened on earth after the great exodus.”
“But how can you gather information without leaving the tower?”
“From the minds of human beings. Thought-reading machines were invented late in the twenty-first century, as a by-product of research into sleep-learning. When men learned how to feed knowledge directly into the human memory circuits, they also discovered how to decipher what was already stored in those circuits.”
Niall found the thought disquieting. “So you can read everything that goes on in my mind?”
“No. I said thought-reading machines, not mind-reading machines. Your thoughts are only the topmost layer of your mind. They operate on a series of coded signals which can be detected like radio waves. A powerful thought-reading machine can decipher most of the contents of your long-term memory. But it has no power to detect your feelings or intuitions — or the decisions of your will. We collect most of our information from the brains of human beings while they are asleep.”
“But what do you want it for?”
“So the men of New Earth can stay in touch with what is happening on earth.”
Niall’s heart leapt. “You are able to speak to them?”
“All the information gathered by the Steegmaster is transmitted direct to New Earth.”
“So they already know about me?”
“Not yet. It takes five years for the radio signals to reach them.”
“But they know about the spiders?”
“Of course.”
Niall said eagerly: “Do you think they might come back to earth and help us fight them?”
“No. Why should they?”
The bluntness startled and dismayed him. He answered lamely: “Because. . . because they are human beings too.”
“True. But it would take them ten years to reach the earth, even after they had received your message. Why should they go to so much trouble to help you when you could help yourself?”
The answer rekindled his feeling of hope. “Do you believe we could do it ourselves?”
“If you cannot, then you do not deserve to be free. The law of life is the survival of the fittest. If you cannot defeat the spiders, then you are not fit to survive, and they would deserve to remain the masters of the earth.”
This made Niall thoughtful. He said finally: “When I first came here, you promised you would show me how to defeat the spiders. Could you do that?”
“I could.”
“But will you ?”
“I am afraid it is not permitted.”
Niall’s heart sank. “Why not?”
There was a pause, then the voice said: “I will make a bargain with you. If you can tell me why not, then I will try to help you.”
Niall shook his.head in bewilderment. “Is it some kind of riddle?”
“No. Just a bargain.”
“But. . . how long can I have to think about it?”
“As far as I am concerned, it is a matter of indifference. But I would not advise you to take too long.”
“Why not?”
“Because the longer you stay, the more difficult you will find it to escape. The spiders are still unaware that you are missing. When they find out, it will not take them long to guess where you are hiding. When that happens, there will be an army of spiders to prevent you leaving the tower.”
“But how will they guess where I am?”