Voyage From Yesteryear

“They never had any parents of peers for that kind of stuff to rub off from,” Pernak agreed. “Classes, echelons, black, white, Soviet, Chinese … it’s all the same to them. They don’t care. It’s what you are that matters.”

“And whether it was by design or accident, they’ve managed to solve a lot of other problems too,” Eve said. “Take crime for instance. Theft and greed are impossible, because how can you steal another man’s competence? Oh, you could try and fake it, I suppose, but you wouldn’t last long with people as discerning as Chironians. They can see through a charlatan as quickly as we can spot ourselves being shortchanged. In fact to ‘them that’s just what it is. They have their violent moments, sure, but nothing as bad as what’s coming in from Africa on the beam right now, or what happened in 2021. But it never turns into a really big problem. There’s no motivation for anyone to rally round a would-be Napoleon. He wouldn’t have anything to offer that anybody needs.”

After another short silence Lechat said, “It’s a strange system of currency though, isn’t it. I mean, it’s not additive at all, or subject to any laws of arithmetic. You can pay what you owe and still not be any poorer yourself. It sounds –I don’t know impossible somehow.”

“It’s not subject to finite arithmetic,” Pernak agreed. “But why does it have to be? Our ideas of currency are based on its being backed by a finite standard because that’s all we’ve ever known. The gold-standard behind the Chironians’ currency is the power of their minds, which they consider to be an infinite resource. Therefore they do their accounting with a calculus of infinities. You take something from infinity, and you’ve still got infinity left.” He shrugged. “It’s consistent. I know it sounds crazy to us, but it fits with the way they think”

“It certainly puts a new light on things,” Lechat conceded. He sat back again, looked from one to the other, and spread his hands resignedly. “So am I to take it that I shouldn’t assume your Support in the matter I talked about earlier?”

“It’s nothing personal, Paul. We think you’re a great guy …. ‘ Pernak frowned and sighed apologetically. “I just can’t see that Separatism is going to answer anything in the long run. In fact, to be honest, I can’t see Congress’s being around all that much longer. On that planet down there, it’s a dodo already.”

“You could be right, but that’s long-term,” Lechat replied. “I’m more worried about what might happen in the shorter term. I need help to do something about it.”

‘Those methods were appropriate before this phase, change,” Pernak answered. ‘They don’t have any place now.”

“What other way is there?” Lechat Eked.

Pernak shrugged. “Just let the system die naturally.”

“It might not want to die that easily,” Lechat pointed out. “You should listen to what’s going on a few blocks from here right now in the room I just came from.”

“They won’t stop anything, Paul,” Pernak said. “They’re up against the driving force of evolution. Canute had the same problem.”

“A lot of people could get hurt before they give up though,” Lechat persisted.

Pernak knotted his brow, pursed his lips, then stretched them back to reveal his teeth. “Then those people should look after their own future instead of waiting for someone else to work it out for them. That’s the old way. They have to learn to think the Chironian way.” After a second of hesitation he added, ‘~that’s what Eve and I are going to do

“What do you mean?” Lechat asked, although in the same instant he thought he knew.

Pernak glanced at Eve for a moment. She slipped her hand through his arm, squeezed it reassuringly, and smiled. They both looked back at Lechat. “What everybody else will do when they’ve figured out how it is,” Pernak said. He grinned, almost apologetically. “That’s why we won’t be able to help much, Paul. You see, we’re leaving.”

“I see . . .” Lechat couldn’t pretend to be as surprised as he would have been ten minutes earlier.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *