James P. Hogan Najazd z przeszłości

Nikt pozostający przy zdrowych zmysłach nie chce zostać zabity albo wysłany do miejsca, o którym nigdy nie słyszał, przez ludzi, których nigdy nie spotkał, w celu zabijania innych ludzi, których nigdy nie znał.
It seemed self-evident to him that nobody in his right mind would want to get killed, or to be sent to places he'd never heard of by people he'd never met in order to kill other people he didn't know.

” Czy ten, kto nie lubi zabijać innych, jest dobrym żołnierzem?

” Oczywiście ” [...] ” Chłopaki, które tego nie lubią, a muszą, robią się wściekli. Jeśli nie mogą wyładować wściekłości na tych, którzy im rozkazują, przenoszą ją zastępczo na nieprzyjaciela. W ten sposób stają się dobrymi żołnierzami.

„Not liking killing people makes a good soldier?” „Sure.” Sirocco tossed up a gauntleted hand as if the answer were obvious. „Guys who don't like it but have to do it get mad. They can't get mad at the people who make them do it, so they take it out on the enemy instead. That's what makes them good. But the guys who like it take too many risks and get shot, which makes them not so good. It's logical.„

Raz wreszcie być traktowanym jak ktoś odpowiedzialny, szanowany, jako istota obdarzona rozumem i umiejąca go używać ” było to przeżycie nowe i krzepiące.... Lecz Sirocco nie mógł się zmusić, by armię traktować naprawdę serio. Oczywiście wielomiliardowej wartości przemysł, stworzony do zabijania ludzi, był sprawą nader poważną [...] Wojsko było po prostu grą, w którą lubił się bawić. [...] A przy tym Sirocco nie zamierzał przejmować się oficerami ani ich gry brać na serio.

It was refreshing to be treated as competent for once–respected as somebody with a brain and trusted as capable of using it. [...] but Sirocco seemed incapable of taking the Army seriously. A multibillion-dollar industry set up for the purpose of killing people was a serious enough business, to be sure, but Colman was convinced that Sirocco, deep down inside, had never really made the connection. It was a game that he enjoyed playing. And because Sirocco refused to worry about them and wouldn't take their game seriously [...]

Życie było jak wojsko, brało ludzie, łamało ich na drobne kawałki i układało z powrotem tak, jak chciało. [...] Brało umysły dziecięce w okresie ich plastyczności i paraliżowało je mówiąc, że są głupie; dezorientowało je przy pomocy ludzi, którzy z założenia wszystko mieli wiedzieć lepiej, ale nic z tego im nie przekazywali; na koniec terroryzowało je przy pomocy Boga, który kochał wszystkich. A wtedy musztrowało je i ćwiczyło, dopóki słusznym nie stało się tylko to, co kazało im myśleć.

Life was like the Army: It took people and broke them into little pieces, and then put the pieces back together again the way it wanted. Except it did it with their minds. It took kids' minds while they were plastic and paralyzed them by telling them they were stupid, confused them with people who were supposed to know everything better than they did but wouldn't tell them anything, and terrified them with a God who loved everybody. Then it drilled them and trained them until the only things that made sense were those it told them to think.

Biznesmenom nie zależało na pokoju po to, by Colman i jemu podobni nie zostali zabici ani by Chirończycy podobni do Jaya zostali inżynierami, albo uprawiali farmy zamiast ginąć pod dywanowym nalotem. Chcieli pokoju po to, by móc nająć Chirończyków za połowę płacy Ziemian i by zbudować dla swych dzieci dobre ekskluzywne szkoły. Chirończykom nie można pozwolić chodzić do szkół, bo wtedy zażądają równych płac z Ziemianami. A zresztą na takie szkoły nigdy nie będzie ich stać ” przecież to w końcu nie są ludzie. Był całkiem pewien, że większość ludzi, którzy zabijali się tam na Ziemi, ani nie chciała tych obszarów, ani nie przejmowała się aż do tego stopnia, kto będzie nimi władał. Czy ktoś w ogóle przetrwa na dłuższą metę? ” Colman nie był tego taki pewny. Czy kukiełki, które myślą to, co się im każe i zabijają się nawzajem z przyczyn, które ich nie powinny obchodzić?

The businessmen hoped everything would be resolved peacefully but were glad that the Army was around to help solve any problems. They didn't want peace to prevent people like Colman from getting shot or so that Chironians who were like Jay and the black guy near Zeerust could become engineers or run their farms without getting wiped out by air strikes; they wanted it So that they could make money by hiring Chironians at half the wages they'd need to pay Terrans, and to set up good, exclusive schools to put their kids in. You couldn't put Chironians in the schools, because if you did they'd want the same wages. And in any case they'd never be able to afford it. The Chironians weren't really people, after all.

( O wychowaniu dzieci) To ma sens. Traktuj je tak, jakby były odpowiedzialne, a będą się zachowywać odpowiedzialnie; daj im do zabawy kawałek taniego plastyku, a tak się będą zachowywały, jak na to zasługuje plastyk.

It made sense, Driscoll thought. Treat them as if they're responsible, and they act
responsibly; give them bits of cheap plastic to throw around, and they act like it's cheap plastic.

Powinni ryzykować ludzie, którzy są przekonani, że warto to robić. Zadziwiająco często się okazuje, że nie warto się bić o coś, gdy wiesz, że to ty masz być tym, który się bije.

„At least we don't give out orders for other people to take our risks for us,” [...] „The people who take the risks are the ones who believe it's worth it. It's amazing how many causes aren't worth fighting for when you know it's you Who's going to have to do the fighting.”

Chirończyk: ” Prawda, oznacza to, że musimy sobie dawać radę bez żadnych wielkich nadnaturalnych braci, którzy by dla nas kierowali przyrodą i rozwiązywali nasze problemy. [...] Z drugiej jednak strony nie musimy obawiać się wszystkich nonsensów, które wymyślono wraz z nimi. Oznacza to więc, że mamy całkowitą wolność podejmowania decyzji co do naszych losów i ufania własnemu rozsądkowi. Nie jest to aż takie złe samopoczucie, jak sądzę.
Ziemianin: Ja, aaa... ja znam parę osób, które orzekłyby, że brzmi to nader arogancko.
– Arogancko? [...] Tacy są raczej ludzie, którzy są pewni, że ” wiedzą” , nie ja. Ja po prostu staram się najlepiej interpretować fakty, które mi są dostępne. [...] A w każdym razie arogancja i duma to są dwie różne rzeczy. Na pewno jestem dumny, że jestem człowiekiem.

” Oni by też powiedzieli, że skromność jest większą cnotą [...]
” Bo jest ” zgodził się chętnie Adam ” Ale skromność i samoponiżanie się to też dwie różne rzeczy.
Ziemianin bezwiednie zerknął na Kath, chcąc poznać jej zdanie.

” Jeśli masz na myśli system wierzeń oparty, mimo powierzchownych pozorów, że jest przeciwnie, na chorobliwej obsesji śmierci, nienawiści, rozkładu, dehumanizacji i upokorzenia, to odpowiedź moja na twoje pytanie brzmi ” Nie” ” powiedziała patrząc na Colmana. Rzuciła okiem na swe wnuki. ” Ale jeśli poświęcenie się życiu, miłości, rośnięciu, osiągnięciom i potędze ludzkiej twórczości odpowiada twojej definicji, wtedy odpowiedź brzmi :” Tak, Chiron ma swoją religię.”

„Arrogant?” Adam smiled to himself. „They're the ones who are so sure they 'know,' not me. I'm just making the best interpretation I can of the facts I've got.” He thought for a moment longer. „Anyhow, arrogance and pride are not the same thing. I'm proud to be a human being, sure.” „They'd tell you modesty was a better virtue too,” Colman said.
„It is,” Adam agreed readily. „But modesty and self-effacement aren't the same thing either.” Colman looked unconsciously toward Kath for her opinion.
„If you mean systems of beliefs based, despite their superficial appearances to the contrary, on morbid obsessions with death, hatred, decay, dehumanization, and humiliation, then the answer to your question is no,” she said, looking at Colman. She glanced at her grandchildren. „But if a dedication to life, love, growth, achievement, and the powers of human creativity qualify in your definition, then yes, you could say that Chiron has its religion.”

Na Chironie sprawy osobiste uważane są za sprawy osobiste. Niektóre pary mogą zdecydować się na trwałe związanie ze sobą i swymi rodzinami, inne nie, ale ani społeczeństwo, ani ktokolwiek inny nie ma prawa wypowiadać się na ten temat. Jeśli zaś idzie o jego zdanie – oświadczył Adam – pomysł, że ktokolwiek mógłby orzekać o standardach moralnych dla innych ludzi, a tym bardziej próbować je narzucać w drodze ustawowej, jest nieprzyzwoity.

[...] on Chiron personal affairs were considered personal business. Some couples might choose to remain exclusively committed to each other and their family, others might not, and it wasn't a matter for society or anybody else to comment on. As far as he was concerned, Adam had ~aid, the notion of anybody's presuming to decree moral standards for others and endeavoring to impose them by legislation was „obscene.”

Później Colman pomyślał o Anicie, którą przywieziono z powrotem w worku na zwłoki, ponieważ wolała trzymać się pomyleńca, zamiast użyć własnego rozumu dla decydowania o swoim życiu... Chirończycy [...] nie uczą swoich dzieci, że zaszczytnie jest umierać za upartych starców, którzy nigdy w życiu nie oglądali wylotu lufy. Nie wysyłali ich też daleko, by były tysiącami wyżynane, broniąc szaleństw innych ludzi.

Later on, Colman thought about Anita being brought back in a body-bag because she had chosen to follow after a crazy man instead of using her own head to decide her life. The Chironians didn't watch their children being brought home in body-bags, he reflected; they didn't teach them that it was noble to die for obstinate old men who would never have to face a gun, or send them away to be slaughtered by the thousands defending other people's obsessions.

Przewrotna logika, która zawsze go dziwiła, nie była cechą jedynie umysłów wojskowych; po prostu z taką tylko Colman dotychczas się stykał. Przewrotność była produktem całego obłąkańczego systemu, którego wojsko było tylko częścią ” systemu, który toczył wojny, by bronić pokoju, i zniewalał narody wyzwalając je; który podawał nienawiść i chęć odwetu za wolę wszechmiłującego Boga, a w umysły dzieci wbijał litanie do tegoż Boga, który palił i torturował heretyków, głosząc wszechwybaczenie; uczynił grzech z miłości, a cnotę z morderstwa i wynosił do władzy szaleńców, wymagając od rządzących takich cech, jakich nie mógł mieć zdrowy umysł. Chirończycy nieubłaganie zdzierali z rzeczywistości zasłonę i mnóstwo rzeczy stawało się jasne. Kurtyna zaś, którą podnoszono, była także tłem dla sceny, na której tańczyły kukiełki. Gdy kurtyna znikła i znikły sznurki, którymi kukiełki poruszano, one tańczyły nadal. Tańczyły bez sznurków, bo nigdy nie było żadnych sznurków, z wyjątkiem tych, które kukiełki pozwoliły przywiązać do swych mózgów reżyserom. Ale sznurki te podtrzymywały reżyserów, nie kukiełki, bo reżyserzy padali, a kukiełki tańczyły nadal.

The inverted logic that had puzzled him had not been something peculiar to the military mind; it was just
that the military mind was the only one he had ever really known. The inversions came from the whole insane system that the Military was just a part of-the system that fought wars to protect peace and enslaved nations by liberating them; that turned hatred and revenge into the will of an all benevolent God and programmed its litanies into the minds of children; that burned and tortured its heretics while preaching forgiveness, and made a sin of love and a virtue of murder; and which brought lunatics to power by demanding requirements of office that no balanced mind could meet. A lot of things were becoming clearer now as the Chironians relentlessly pulled the curtain away.
For the curtain that was falling away was the backcloth of the stage upon which the dolls had danced. And as the backcloth fell and the strings fell with it, the dolls were dancing on. The dolls were dancing without the strings because there were no strings. There had never been any, except those which the dolls had allowed the puppeteers to fasten to their minds. But those strings had held up the puppeteers, not the dolls, for the puppeteers were falling while the dolls danced on.

(W czasie walki): A po obu stronach ” kto miałby szansę zyskania czegokolwiek, na czym mu zależy? Nie miał sporów z ludźmi obsadzającymi tę pozycję obronną, oni nie mieli sporów z nim, czy kimkolwiek z jego ludzi. Czemu więc leżał tu z bronią w ręku, starając się wymyślić najlepszy sposób, by ich zabić? Dlatego, że oni tam też mieli broń i zapewne spędzili dużo czasu na obmyślaniu najlepszego sposobu, by zabić jego. Żaden z niech nie wiedział, czemu to robi. Po prostu zawsze się tak robiło.

Who on either side would stand to gain anything that mattered to them? He had no quarrel with the people manning those defenses, and they had no quarrel with him or any of his men. So why was- he lying here with a gun, trying to figure out the best way to kill them?
Because they were in there with guns and had probably spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to kill him. None of them knew why they were doing it. It was simply that it had always been done.

– Dysponujemy kompletnym arsenałem strategicznym, [...] a jedyna broń, zdolna się nam przeciwstawić, jest obecnie zneutralizowana. [...] Ja nie muszę prowadzić układów ponieważ siła jest wyłącznie po mojej stronie, ale jednak jestem skłonny się układać. W zamian za uznanie mego zwierzchnictwa i lojalność ofiarowuję wam opiekę tej siły [...]
– To dziwna propozycja [...] Ofiarowuje pan obronę, ale jedyna obrona, której ktokolwiek by potrzebował, byłaby w pierwszym rzędzie przed panem. Bo przecież przed chwilą powiedział pan nam, że dysponuje całą bronią. Pana pojęcie logiki wydaje mi się dziwne.
– Te same siły które rozpętały się na Ziemi, są oddalone o dwa lata od Chirona. [...] Stworzę z tego świata potęgę, jakiej Ziemia nigdy nie osiągnie ” niezdobytą fortecę, do której nawet cała flota statków FWA nie będzie śmiała się zbliżyć. [...]
– Czy ta obrona różni się czymkolwiek od dominacji FWA, która jakoby powinna nas niepokoić? [...] Nie potrzebujemy od pana większej obrony przeciw ludziom ze statku FWA, niż oni od swoich przywódców, by ich bronili przed nami. [...] Jeśli sąsiedzi muszą fortyfikować swoje domy przed sąsiadami, czy to jest siła, czy paranoja? Musi się pan czuć bardzo niepewnie, chcąc ufortyfikować cały system gwiezdny. [...] Niech pan spojrzy na tę garstkę szaleńców wokół siebie [...] co się stało z ludźmi [...], nie ma pan im nic do zaoferowania, prócz obrony przed strachem, który by pan chciał sfabrykować w ich umysłach. [...] Ale oni wiedzą, że ten strach jest pana strachem, nie ich, i że to pan potrzebuje obrony, nie oni.

„We commend a complete strategic arsenal,[...] and the only weapon capable of opposing us is now neutralized. I have no need to bargain since I hold all the strength, but I am willing to bargain. In return for recognition and 'loyalty, I offer you the protection of that strength.
„That's a strange offer,” [...] „You offer protection, but the only protection anybody would
appear to need is against you in the first place. After all, you've just told us that you hold all the weapons. You seem to entertain a curious notion of logic.”
„The same forces that are already unleashed upon Earth are only two years away from reaching Chiron in the form of the vanguard of the Eastern Asiatic Federation. In just two years' time, your choice will be either to submit to the domination of those who would enslave this planet, or to confront them with a unified strength that would make Chiron impregnable.
„Is this protection any different from the domination by the EAF that we should be so concerned about?” „Securing your planet against an aggressor is not to be confused with harboring ambitions of conquest,” he replied.
Otto shook his head. „If Earth is tearing itself apart, it is because its people allowed themselves to believe the same – self-fulfilling prophecies that you are asking us to accept. But we reject them. We need no more protection from you against the people in the EAP starship than they need from their leaders to protect them against us. We have no need of that kind of strength. Is it strength for neighbors to fortify their homes against each other, or is it paranoia? You must feel very insecure to wish to fortify an entire star system. [...] Take a look at the other lunatics around you,” he suggested. „What happened to
all the people? Where did your army go?[...] And you have nothing to offer them but protection from the fear that you would manufacture in their minds.[...] They see that the fear is your fear, not theirs; and it is you who are in need of protection, not they.”

Everything that can go wrong, will... unless somebody makes his business to do something about it.

„You can trace the same basic struggle right down trough the history. Two opposed ideologies ” the feudalism of the aristocracies on one side, and the publicianism of the artisans, and city„builders on the other. You had it with the slave economies of the ancient world, the intellectual oppressions of the Church in Europe in the Middle Ages, the colonialism of the British Empire, and, later on, Eastern Communism and Western consumerism.” pl105a3[PL190, US165]

„Keep 'em working hard, give 'em a cause to believe in, and don't teach 'em to think too hard, huh?”
„Exactly. The last thing you want is an educated, affluent, and emancipated population. Power hinges on the restriction and control of wealth. Science and technology offer unlimited wealth. Therefore science and technology have to be controlled. Knowledge and reason are enemies; myth and unreason are the weapons you fight them with.”

Lyn was thinking about the conversation an hour later. [...] It was the same war that Vic, consciously or not, had been fighting all his life, she realized. The Sverenssens who had almost shut down Thurien stood side by side with the Inquisition that had forced Galileo to recant, the bishops who had opposed Darwin, the English nobility who would have ruled the Americas as a captive market for home industry, and the politicians on both sides of the Iron Curtain who had seized the atom to hold a world to ransom with bombs. She wanted to contribute something in this war, even if only a token gesture to show that she was on his side. She was thinking about Egyptian pyramids, medieval cathedrals, British dreadnoughts, and the late„twentieth„century arms race. Were they all parts of the same pattern too? she wondered. No matter how much more wealth per capita improving technology made possible, always there had been something to soak up the surplus and condemn ordinary people to a lifetime of labor. No matter how much productivity increased, people never seemed to work less, only differently. So if they didn't reap fruits, who did? She was beginning to see lots of things in ways she hadn't before.


[pl211]` Four and half thousand miles from Houston, Norman Pacey was sitting on a bench by the side of the Serpentine lake in London's Hyde Park. Strollers in open„necked shirts and summery dresses making the best of the first warm days of the year added a dash of color to the surrounding greenery topped by distant frontages of dignified and imposing buildings that had not changed appreciably in fifty years. That was all they had ever wanted, he thought to himself as he took in the sights and sounds around him. All that people the world over had ever wanted was to live their lives, pay their way, and be left alone. So how had the few with different aspirations always been able to command the power to impose themselves and their systems? Which was the greater evil ” one fanatic with a cause, or a hundred men free enough not to care about causes? But caring about freedom enough to defend it made it a cause and its defenders fanatics. For ten thousand years mankind had wrestled with the problem and not found an answer. A shadow fell across the ground, and Mikolai Sobroskin sat down on the bench next to him. He was wearing a heavy suit and necktie despite the fine weather, and his head was glistening with beads of perspiration in the sunlight. „A refreshing contrast to Giordano Bruno,” he commented. „What an improvement it would be if the maria were really seas.”
Pacey turned his head from staring across the lake and grinned. „And maybe a few trees, huh? I think UNSA has got its work cut out for a while with the proposals for cooling down the Venus and oxygening Mars. Luna's way down the list. Even if it weren't, I'm not so sure that anybody has come up with any good ideas for what they could do about it. But who knows? One day, maybe.” The Russian sighed. „Perhaps we had such knowledge in the palm of our hand. We threw it away. Do you realize that we have witnessed what could be the greatest crime in human history? And perhaps the world will never know.” Pacey nodded, waited for a second to assume a more businesslike manner, and asked, „So?8 What's the news?” Sobroskin drew a handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed his head. „You were right about the coded signals from Gistar when you suspected that they were in response to an independent transmitting facility established by us,” he replied. Pacey nodded without showing surprise. He knew that already from what Caldwell and Lyn. Garland had revealed in Washington, but he cwldn't say so. „Have you found out how Verikoff and Sverenssen fit in?” he asked. „I think so,” Sobroskin said. „They seem to be a part of global operation of some sort that was committed to shutting down communications of any kind between this planet and Thurien. They used the same methods. Verikoff is a member of a powerful faction that strongly opposed the Soviet attempt to open another channel. Their reasons were the same as the UN's. As it turned out, they were taken by surprise before they could organize an effective block, and some transmissions were sent. Like Sverenssen, Verikoff was instrumental in causing additional messages to be sent secretly, designed to frustrate the exercise. At least we think so. 8 We can't prove it.” Pacey nodded again. He knew that too. „Do you know what they said?” he inquired out of curiosity, although he had read Caldwell's transcripts from Thurien. „No, but I can guess. These people knew in advance that the relay to Gistar would deactivate. That says to me that they must have been responsible. Presumably they arranged it months ago with an independent launching organization, or maybe a part of UNSA that they knew they could trust 8 I don't know. But my guess is that their strategy was to delay the proceedings via both channels until the relay was put out of action permanently.” Pacey Stared across the lake to an enclosed area of water on the far side in which crowds of children were swimming and playing in the sun. The sounds of shouting and laughter drifted across intermittently on the breeze. Apart from the confirmation of Verikoff's involvement, he hadn't learned anything new so far. „What do you make of it?” he asked without turning his head. After a long, heavy silence, Sobroskin replied, „Russia had a tradition of tyranny through to the early years of this century. Ever since it threw off the yoke of Mongol subjugation in the fifteenth century, it was obsessed with preserving its security to the point that the security of other nations became a threat that could not be tolerated. It expanded its borders by conquest and held on to its acquired territories by oppression, intimidation, and terror. But the new lands in turn had borders and there was no end to the process. Communism changed nothing. It was merely a banner of convenience for rallying gullible idealists and rationalizing sacrifice. Apart from a few brief months in 1917, Russia was no more Communist than the Church of the Middle Ages was Christian.„He paused to fold his handkerchief and return it to his pocket. Pacey waited without speaking for him to continue. „We thought that all that began to change in the early decades of this century with the end of the threat of thermonuclear war and a more enlightened view of internationalism. And superficially it did. Many like myself dedicated themselves to creating a new climate of understanding and common progress with the West as it emerged from its own style of tyranny.” Sobroskin sighed and shook his head sadly. „But the Thurien affair has revealed that the forces that plunged Russia into its own Dark Age did not go away, and their purpose has not changed.” He looked at Pacey sharply. ” And the forces that brought religious terror and economic exploitation to the West have not gone away, either. On both sides they have merely modified their stance to avert what would have guaranteed their dustruction along with everything else. There is a web across this whole planet that konnects many Sverenssens and Verikoffs. They pose behind banners and slogans that call for liberation, but the liberation they seek is their own, not that of p}ople who follow them.” „Yes, I know,” Pacey said. „We've uncovered some of it too. What's the answer?” Sobroskin raised an arm and gestured at the far side of the lake. „For all we know, those children might have grown up to se other worlds under other suns. But the price of that would have been knowledge, and knowledge is the enemy of tyranny in any disguise. It has freed more people from poverty and oppression than all of the ideologies and creeds in history put together. Every form of serfdom follows from serfdom of the mind.” „I'm not sure what you're saying,” Pacey said. „Are you saying you want to come over to us or something?” The Russian shook his head. „The war that matters has nothing to do with flags. It is between those who would set the minds of children free, and those who would deny them Thurien. The latest battle has been lt, but the war will continue. Perhaps ne day we will talk to Thurien again. But in the meantime another battle is looming in Moscow for control of the Kremlin, and that is where I must be.” He reached behind him for a package that he had placed on the bench behind him and passed it to Pacey. „We have a tradition of ruthlessness in handling our internal affairs that you do not share. It is possible that many people will not survive the next few months, and I could be one of them. If so, I would like to think that my work has not been for nothing.” He relased the package and withdrew his arm. „That contains a complete record of all that I know. It would not be safe with my colleagues in Moscow since their future, like my own, is full of uncertainties. B}~ I know that you will use the information wisely, for you understand as well as I | that in the war that really matters we are on the same side.” With that he stood up. ” I am glad that we met, Norman Pacey. It is reassuring to see that on both sides, b~ds exist that are deeper than the colors on maps. I hope that we meet again, but in case that is not to be8” He let the words hang and extended a hand. Pacey stood up and grasped firmly. „We will. And things will be better,” he said. „I hope so.” Sobroskin relased his grip, turned, and began walking away along the side of the lake. Pacey's fingers tightened around the package as he stood watching the short, stocky figure marching jerkily off to keep its appointment with fate, possibly to die so that children might laugh. He couldn't let him walk away without knowing. „Mikolai!” he called. Sobroskin stopped and looked back. Pacey waited. The Russian retraced his steps. ” The battle was not lost,” Pacey said. „There's another channel to Thurien operating right now in the United States. It doesn't need the relay. We've been talking to Thurien for weeks. That was why Karen Heller returned to Earth. It's okay. All the Sverenssens in the world can't stop it now.” Sobroskin stared at him for a long time before the words seemed to register. At last he moved his head in a slow, barely perceptible nod, his eyes expressionless and distant, and murmured quietly, „Thank you.” Then he turned away and began walking again, this time slowly, as if in a trance. When he had covered twenty yards or so he stopped, stared back again, and raised his arm in a silent salutation. Then he turned away and began walking once more, and after a few steps his pace lightened and quickened. Even at that distance Pacey had seen the exultation in his expression. Pacey watched until Sobroskin had vanished among people walking by the boathouses farther along the shoreline, then turned away and walked in the opposite direction toward the Serpentine bridge.


[pl249] „What is knowledge?” she asked them. „True” knowledge, of reality as it is, as opposed to how it might appear to be or how one might wish it to be? What is the only system of thought that has been developed that is effective in distinguishing fact from fallacy, truth from myth, and reality from delusion?” She paused again for a second and then exclaimed, „Science!óó All the truths that we know, as opposed to beliefs which some choose blindly to adopt as if the strength of their convictions could affect facts, have been revealed by the rational processes of applied scientific method. Science alone yields a basis for the formulation of beliefs whose validity can be proved because they predict results that can be tested. And yet...

Her voice fell, and she turned her head to include the Terrans sitting around her. „And yet, for thousands of years the races of Earth clung persistently to their cults, superstitions, irrational dogmas, and impotent idols. They refused to accept what their eyes alone should have told them ” that the magical and mystical forces in which they trusted and which they aspired to command were fictions, barren in their yield of results, powerless in prediction, and devoid of useful application. In a word, they were ňňworthlessóó, which of course made any consequences harmless. And this, from the Lambian, or Jevlenese, viewpoint, constituted a remarkably convenient situation. It was too convenient to be just a coincidence.” Heller turned her head to look coldly at the Jevlenese. But we know that it was not merely a coincidence. Far from it.” [...] We know that the early beliefs in the supernatural were established by miracle workers whom ňňyouóó recruited and trained, and injected as agents to found and popularize mass movements and countercultures based on myth, and to undermine and discredit any tendencies toward the emergence of the rational systems of thought that could lead to advanced technology, mastery over the environment, and a challenge to your position. Can you deny it?” She could read on their faces that her bluff had succeeded. [...] ” The superstitions and religions of Earths early cultures were carefully contrived and implanted. The beliefs of the Babylonians, the Mayas, the ancient Egyptians, and the early Chinese, for example, were based on notions of supernatural, magic, legend, and folklore, to sap them of any potential for developing logical methods of thought. The civilizations that grew upon those foundations built cities, developed arts and agriculture, and constructed ships and simple machines, but they never evolved the sciences that could have unlocked true power on any significant scale. They were harmless.” [...] „The same pattern traces through to modern times,” Heller replied. „The saints and apparitions who created legends by conveying messages and performing miracles were agents sent from Jevlen to reinforce and reassure. The cults and movements that perpetuated beliefs in spiritualism and the occult, in paranormal sciences and other such nonsenses that were in vogue in Europe and North America in the ninetieth century, were manufactured in an attempt to dilute the progress of true science and reason. And even in the twentieth century, the so„called popular reactions against science, technology, positive economic growth, nuclear energy, and the like were in fact carefully orchestrated.” [...] By the time of the nineteenth century, it was obvious that Western Civilization was rapidly spreading science and industrial technology across the globe in spite of all their efforts. At that point the Jevlenese changed their tactics. They actually began to stimulate and accelerate scientific discovery by leaking information in various quarters that precipitated major breakthroughs. etc. etc...

„You are wise,” Showm commented. „You understand truth. So why don't Terrans allow people like you to lead?„Mildred laughed delightedly. „We've been through that! I'd never be appointed. They don't want to hear what's true. They want to hear whatever justifies their prejudices.” „Like children who think they can change reality by wishing it so. On Thurien you would be listened to.„

„So what exists beyond Thuriens and humans?” „We don't know. The desire is to find out is our greatest motivation.„

Things happen in their own time,” he said. „The job descriptions call us managers, but you can't manage creative people. What we really are is gardeners. We put them in a place where the soil is right, make sure they get enough water and sun, and then wait for them to do their own thing.

This was their true nature: generosity; sympathy and empathy; helping others to succeed; finding security to face the world in companionship. It always had been. In themselves, they knew nothing of hatred or fear, mistrust and treachery. Such things had to be taught to them, by adults. Overcoming the selfishness and destructiveness of infancy to prepare for a fulfilling life was the proper business of youth. But on Earth, selfishness and destructiveness were idealized as virtues. Earth had things backward. It suppressed the spontaneous expression of life seeking to mature, and taught regression back to infancy instead. Then it twisted reality to fit by manufacturing cultural myths enshrined in what it believed was science. Like all organisms forced to live against their nature, nations, empires, or whole cultures that sought life by killing, wealth by destroying, security by preying upon each other, would rebel, sicken, and eventually die. The whole of Earth's history was a testimony to it.„I saw . . . I'll tell you what I saw. I saw young people who were not sitting in rows and being lectured to know their place, when they could speak, and what they were allowed to believe. They weren't being taught to hate or to despise, or whom they were superior to and whom they must obey. They weren't learning to recognize and submit to authority, in preparation for accepting the authority that would exploit them for the rest of their lives, and command them into believing it was natural. I saw minds that were free to grow into everything they could become. . . . Maybe for the first time.„This time it was Showm's turn to fall silent before answering. Eventually, she sighed. Her breath made white vapor in the air. „We've talked this way before. Those are not the values that rule Earth. Terrans like you are so few—who can feel and think the way you do.„Mildred shook her head. „No. They are the majority. But they are silent and invisible: the poor, the hungry, the defenseless, the oppressed. Perhaps these are things you can have no concept of, Frenua. How can people think of the stars when they labor morning to night day after day, and all they have to show at the end will barely put a meal on the table for their children? How do people who can't even imagine escaping from crushing debt or the fear of destitution discover their inner selves? How can they build boats when every morning they might be dragged out of their homes and thrown into prisons?” „But why can't they see the things you see?” Showm asked.