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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Instant of Now, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Instant of Now
+
+Author: Irving E. Cox, Jr.
+
+Release Date: March 15, 2010 [EBook #31651]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSTANT OF NOW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+    This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe Aug-Sept 1953.
+    Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+    copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+[_One of the most intriguing of all science fiction patterns
+  is that of the galactic sweep--the story which takes for granted human
+  travel between stars at speeds far faster than the speed of light. In
+  its most successful form, such a story combines cosmic action with a
+  wholly human plot. In this case Mr. Cox--but read it yourself._]
+
+
+                          the instant of now
+
+
+                     _by ... Irving E. Cox, Jr._
+
+
+     Revolution is not necessarily a noble thing. Unless shrewdly
+     directed, its best elements may fall victim to its basest
+     impulses.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Eddie Dirrul had destroyed the message seconds after reading it. Yet,
+as he left the pneumotube from the University, he felt as if it were
+burning a hole in his pocket. It had come to him from Paul Sorgel, the
+new top-agent from the Planet Vinin. It had been written in High
+Vininese.
+
+For a moment the alien language had slowed Eddie's reaction to its
+contents, as had the shocking nature of its words. It had read--
+
+     _Need your help. Glenna and Hurd in brush with Secret
+      Police--both hurt. Come at once._
+
+Luckily old Dr. Kramer had asked no awkward questions when Eddie
+excused himself from the balance of the lecture. If the kindly
+bumbling professor had been inquisitive, Eddie had no idea how he
+would have answered. Glenna was his fiancée, Hurd his best friend--and
+their disaster meant disaster for the underground movement that had
+become the guiding purpose of his entire life.
+
+The night was still young when he emerged from the pneumotube and the
+slanting ramp-lines of windows in the massive unit-blocks of the
+Workers' Suburb rose about him within the darkness of the structural
+frames that encased them.
+
+Parks, recreation centers and gaudy amusement halls were aswirl with
+the usual evening crowds. With a sort of angry heedlessness Eddie
+forced his way among tall perpetually-youthful men in bright leisure
+clothing--and consciously alluring women clad in filmy garments as
+teasingly transparent as mist.
+
+_Glenna hurt--and Hurd!_ Seriously, of course, or Paul Sorgel would
+never have risked a hand-message. With quiet desperation he pushed
+through the crowds--in his trim grey Air-command uniform he was one
+with them, a nonentity like themselves.
+
+He knew where to find the three he sought. Beyond the outdoor courts,
+where his fellow-Agronians amused themselves with a variety of
+racquet-games, lay a tiny park, wherein a state of wild disorder was
+carefuly maintained in imitation of nature.
+
+Few were attracted by its rugged growth, save in very warm weather,
+when hardy souls ventured within its borders to relax in artificial
+breezes created by silent concealed fans. In its center stood a small
+stone building that housed the maintenance machinery. It was deserted,
+except for once each year when the city engineering crews came to
+check the machines and to make minor repairs. There the Libero-Freedom
+Movement held its meetings, in the shadow of the whirring wheels.
+
+Sorgel came out of the shadows as Dirrul pushed through the thicket of
+brush that surrounded the stone building. In a hushed whisper he
+asked, "That you, Eddie?"
+
+"Yes--where are they?"
+
+"Inside. I gave them a hypo--they're both under now. It makes it
+easier."
+
+"How did it happen, Paul?"
+
+"I was to meet Glenna and Hurd at her apartment, to talk over the
+details of the Plan. The police were there ahead of me but I broke up
+the party before they could finish the job. Since they've got to do
+this sort of thing unofficially, to be able to deny it later if any
+questions are asked, I scared them off easily enough. I brought Glenna
+and Hurd here in my Unicyl but I'll need your help to get them out."
+
+"This is the second time it's happened, Paul!" said Eddie. "And the
+Plan--we'll have to organize all over again. As soon as our people
+hear about this most of them will run like scared rabbits."
+
+"Not if they don't know, Eddie. That's where you come in. We've got to
+get Glenna and Hurd away from Agron. If there's no evidence of a crime
+there's no reason for an investigation."
+
+"But what can I do?"
+
+"Borrow one of the Air-command's surface jets for a while."
+
+Paul Sorgel's plan was simple and efficient. The Air-Command field was
+fenced with electronic paralysis barriers and the entrance was heavily
+guarded. But no watch was kept inside the encampment except for a
+daily inspection of the machines when the guard was changed at dawn.
+Since Dirrul was a Captain of the Space-maintenance Division, 73rd
+Air-Command Wing, he was able to enter the area at any time without
+question. Among the scheduled night training flights for new cadets,
+the departure of one more surface jet would pass unobserved.
+
+"Come back here for Glenna and Hurd," Sorgel said, "and take them out
+to the South Desert. If there's no hitch you should be back before
+dawn, with time to spare. If not...." Sorgel shrugged. "Eddie, we
+can't build a better universe without taking occasional risks."
+
+Slowly Dirrul's body tensed with fear. In a cold dead voice he asked,
+"Am I to leave them there, without help or medicine, to die of thirst
+and hunger?"
+
+"Many sacrifices are necessary for the good of the Movement."
+
+"But Glenna and Hurd are our leaders!"
+
+"The freedom of the universe means a little more, I think, than the
+temporary safety of two individuals." Sorgel lit a cigarette. In the
+faint pink reflection of the Glo-Wave lighter his face was emptily
+placid, a faint smile twisting the corners of his lips. "Suppose I say
+it's a command, Dirrul--a Vininese command, calling for Vininese
+discipline."
+
+After a moment Dirrul replied in a choked whisper, "I'll take them,
+sir."
+
+Sorgel smiled and the crisp tone of authority edged out of his voice.
+"As a matter of fact, Eddie, I was curious to see what you would do.
+The Vininese Confederacy practises neither cruelty nor deception.
+You'll find one of our Space-dragons hidden in a gorge of the Katskain
+Range. It's the ship I came in a week ago.
+
+"The pilot was instructed to wait fifteen planetary revolutions in the
+event that I might have a report to send back to Headquarters. You
+must learn to trust me, Eddie. From the first, you see, I intended to
+send Glenna and Hurd to Vinin. If they get there in time there's a
+chance our Medical Corps can pull them through. They may even be back
+here with us for the day when we carry out the Plan."
+
+Dirrul was in no real danger. Much as it benefited the Movement the
+laxity of Agronian security was one of the chief reasons why Dirrul
+scorned the Planetary Union. The space-wide patrols of the
+Air-Command, the city guards and the electronic paralysis barricades
+created a feeling of internal control--but it was all a glittering
+sham. If it were not for the Nuclear Beams the whole system would long
+since have crumbled under the first pressure from outside.
+
+With no difficulty he picked up Glenna and Hurd and took them to the
+South Desert, where he put them aboard the sleek Vininese space-ship.
+It was one of the new Dragon design--compact, efficient, faster than
+anything built by the Planetary Union, protected by sixteen circular
+batteries and yet small enough to be handled by one man.
+
+Dirrul had seen only one other Vininese Space-dragon and that from a
+distance at the Agronian commercial airport, when the last Vininese
+ambassador arrived. Technically there was no reason why Paul Sorgel
+could not have landed there as well, except that the Customs
+questionnaire might have proved embarrassing.
+
+Twenty years earlier, when Dirrul was still a schoolboy, the Galactic
+War had ended. Since that time relations between the Planetary Union
+and the Vininese Confederacy had steadily improved--at least in
+appearance. Undoubtedly there were commercial interests on both sides
+anxious to maintain peace and in recent years the quantity of goods in
+trade had grown enormously. But it was a truce, not a peace--a
+compromise, rather than a victory--forced on the galaxy when the
+scientists of the Planetary Union discovered the Nuclear Beams.
+
+Pain shot through Dirrul's mind as he carried Glenna into the
+pressurized chamber under the control room. She and Hurd were still
+unconscious but Glenna turned in his arms and her eyes fluttered open.
+She looked at him and screamed in terrible agony before the pilot of
+the Space-dragon plunged a hypodermic sedative into her arm.
+
+"It is better," he said to Dirrul in throaty Vininese. "So beautiful a
+one should not feel the pain." Carefully he fastened the needlepoint
+of a wall tube into Glenna's vein and another into Hurd's.
+
+"Synthetic blood feeding," he said with a smile. "It will keep them
+alive, perhaps even permitting minor wounds to heal, until I deliver
+them to the authorities on Vinin. You see, sir, my little ship is
+well-equipped." He slammed the round door of the hospital room shut
+and led Dirrul to the control blister.
+
+"How long will it be, this trip to Vinin?" Dirrul asked, speaking very
+slowly in classical Vininese. Like everyone in the Movement he had
+studied the language of Vinin as a sort of courtesy and duty but he
+had no illusion about his small ability to handle it.
+
+"In terms of your time," the pilot said, "about thirty days."
+
+"Only thirty? The Planetary Union hasn't a ship that could make it
+under sixty!"
+
+"But this is a Space-dragon." The words were self-explanatory.
+
+Proudly the pilot showed Dirrul the controls, as functional and as
+uncomplex as the cool clean lines of the ship herself. The design was
+so logical, so basically simple, that within a few minutes Dirrul
+understood enough of the mechanism to have driven the ship himself.
+
+"Your scientists could do as well," the pilot suggested, "if they
+wished."
+
+"Not mine," Dirrul said.
+
+"Pardon--the scientists of the Planetary Union. On Vinin we create for
+the future, for the progress of the Confederacy. We have no patience
+with petty argument, tedious experimentation or the pointless
+splitting of hairs that seems to occupy so much of your time here. For
+us a scientist is a producer, like everyone else. If he fails to do
+his job we replace him."
+
+Pleased with the comparison the pilot chuckled over his dials as he
+turned on the power. Above the roar he said to Dirrul, "We must talk
+again one day, sir. If you ever have the good fortune to come to Vinin
+be sure to look me up."
+
+
+II
+
+As the Vininese ship shot smoothly out into the night sky, Dirrul's
+surface jet slashed back toward the Agronian capital. A synthetic
+tension, which he deliberately fed with nightmare improbabilities,
+kept him reasonably alert until he had safely returned the jet to its
+place in the compound. Then weariness engulfed him. Groggily he
+staggered to the pneumotube and within five minutes he was asleep in
+the small two-room worker's apartment where he lived.
+
+The insistent _ping_ of the door visiscope woke him. Dirrul glanced at
+his wall clock and saw that it was still early morning. He had slept
+less than three hours. Swearing angrily he turned down the visiarm.
+Dr. Kramer's serene aging white-bearded face was mirrored on the
+grey-tinted screen.
+
+"Good morning, Edward," Kramer said with excessive cheerfulness. "For
+a moment I was afraid I had missed you. I've brought a transcription
+of the lecture you missed yesterday."
+
+Dirrul swung out of bed and pushed the entry release. Soundlessly the
+thin metal door slid into the wall and the little professor bounced
+into the room. The door shot back into place.
+
+"But you're not dressed!" the professor exclaimed without the
+slightest regret. "I always supposed you Air-Command men had to report
+for work at eight."
+
+"Yesterday I was out on emergency call," Dirrul said dully. "For
+twelve hours, so I've the morning off. I had planned to pound the
+pillow until--"
+
+"Good! We can talk, then. I don't have a class until ten and I always
+like to make the personal acquaintance of my students." Dr. Kramer
+made himself comfortable in Dirrul's Cloud-foam lounge, clasping his
+small, white hands over the little bulge of his belly. "Nice apartment
+you have here, Edward--excellent taste in furnishing."
+
+"You don't mind if I shave and dress and have a bite of breakfast, Dr.
+Kramer?" Dirrul's sarcasm was quite lost on the professor.
+
+"Do, by all means," Kramer said. "And you might order a pot of coffee
+for me."
+
+Dirrul touched a button and the bed rolled up into the wall--another
+and the gleaming metal shower-room slid open. He stripped and bathed,
+setting the aquadial so that his body was pounded by a sharp rain of
+icy water. When he snapped it off the massage arms shot out, rubbing
+him dry with soft, plastic puffs. He sprayed the newly patented
+No-Beard Mist on his face and, after waiting the required three
+seconds, wiped it off with a disposable fiber towel. The skin was
+pink and clean, refreshingly invigorated. When he took a fresh uniform
+out of the wall-press and put it on he felt very much himself again,
+scarcely annoyed by his lack of sleep.
+
+He pushed the button and the bathroom rolled out of sight. The whole
+process had taken less than five minutes.
+
+At his panel-control Dirrul dialed a sizable breakfast for himself and
+coffee for the professor. Before he could draw up chairs the
+grey-topped table had rolled from its wall slot, the steaming food
+containers fixed to it.
+
+"The marvels of invention!" Dr. Kramer said. "When I was young we had
+nothing like this. Many times, Edward, I had to prepare my own
+meals--and mighty skimpy ones they were too, some of them. A young
+teacher in those days wasn't paid very much."
+
+"You survived, Dr. Kramer," Dirrul reminded him dryly. "A little work
+now and then wouldn't hurt us, either."
+
+"That's the old argument, Edward. How we frothed and stewed over it
+when this new system was in its infancy! That was before your time, of
+course." Kramer poured a cup of coffee and after a thoughtful
+hesitation quietly took a slice of toast from Dirrul's platter. "They
+said we'd create a race of helpless children--defenseless lazy
+softies. They said if the individual wasn't forced to fight for his
+own survival, for the small comforts of life, he would die of boredom,
+drown initiative in luxury."
+
+Dr. Kramer smiled--and took another slice of toast. "Like so many of
+the terrifying predictions of the Cassandras none of it came to pass.
+Today we're stronger and more vigorous than ever. Today we have more
+new inventions, more new discoveries, more fine philosophical insight
+than ever before in our entire history.
+
+"Actually what we did was save time on the trivial routines so we
+could spend our work-potential where it mattered. After all, what was
+gained by a social system that forced me to spend so much of my energy
+feeding and housing and clothing myself? Weigh the loss against the
+greater contribution I might have made if I had spent the same time in
+research."
+
+"Why, yes, Dr. Kramer--you could have given us the Cloud-foam lounge a
+generation earlier," Dirrul said bitterly, "or perhaps the Safe-sweet
+candy."
+
+Again his sarcasm lost its savor, for the professor simply beamed and
+said, "Possibly, if that had been my field of interest. As it happens
+I'm a psychologist specializing in emotive linguistics--the
+symbologies for conveying meanings." The professor smiled.
+
+"Our present vigor and strength, no doubt, is reflected in the sort of
+thing we do with all this extra time our gadgets give us--the
+scholarly research in the Arena or the Phonoview."
+
+"You're being very uncritical, Edward. Under any social form a great
+majority of the people would spend everything on personal pleasures.
+Why not? Each generation produces only a few leaders--we simply
+recognize that fact and adjust to it."
+
+"But without the incentive of personal gain, Dr. Kramer...."
+
+The professor laughed uproariously. "Incentive! You amaze me, Edward.
+I haven't heard the word used in just that context since I was a boy.
+You're a throwback--an anachronism. You sound like one of the elderly
+prophets of doom. I thought the breed had died out generations ago."
+The professor laughed again. "So our system creates no incentives.
+Tell me, Edward, why are you spending your Work-Equivs to take my
+night course?"
+
+"Because, when I've passed enough university hours I can take the
+promotional test and become a full-fledged space-pilot."
+
+"And still you say there's no incentive?"
+
+"For myself, yes--but all of us ought to have the same kind of drive,"
+said Dirrul.
+
+"Such a condition never existed, Edward. Always there have been a few
+to make the inventions and the discoveries, a few to create the new
+dreams and frame the new ideas. Our people are no different. Incentive
+comes from within the individual--it cannot be imposed from the
+outside.
+
+"The poorest sort of incentive, therefore, is economic need. Our
+system provides all our people with the basic necessities for everyday
+living. Some few of us are content with these and never want anything
+else. But the great majority work to earn Work-Equivs, which they can
+spend as they please--on amusement, luxury, education or the races at
+the Arena.
+
+"Whatever the goal, it is a personal goal, set by each individual for
+himself. It's the only kind of incentive that makes any sense. Take
+yourself as an example--you spend your share of Work-Equivs on
+additional education because you want to become a space-pilot. By the
+time you've earned the promotion you'll have lifted yourself to a
+position of leadership.
+
+"As you are well aware the space-pilot is the politician--statesman is
+a better word--of the Planetary Union. Through his ingenuity, his
+skill with languages, his psychological understanding of diverse
+racial groups, he holds our planets and peoples together, in one union
+with a common social philosophy. Think how frustrating it would be if
+you could never move toward your goal, Edward, because everything you
+earned had to be spent on trivialities--food, clothing, a place to
+live."
+
+"All right," said Eddie doubtfully, "I have an apartment given to me
+but it has to be here in a worker's block. If our system provides for
+us all alike, as you imply, how is it you have accommodations in the
+Scientist's Center? Why should you be set apart? Or the poets and
+writers? Or the space-pilots, for that matter?"
+
+"But there's no difference in the way we live, Edward. In general
+people who do similar work and have similar interests are happier if
+they share the same social environment. The average person, living in
+a worker's block, would feel terribly out of place in a scientist's
+center, just as I would develop terrific frustrations if I had to live
+with the mystics or the religious orders."
+
+Dirrul deftly snatched the last piece of toast as the professor
+reached for it. "I'll dial some for you if you like," he offered.
+
+"Oh, no, Edward! I'm dieting, you see, and I like to think--well, as
+I've told you so often in class, we all practise self-deception of a
+sort. Usually it's harmless--and almost always we symbolize it in
+words. For me the symbol is diet.
+
+"I set up a specialized definition and convince myself that I am
+dieting if I never directly order fattening food. That gives me an
+escape hatch. If food is offered to me or if it happens to--ah--to
+fall into my hands, I can take it and still keep a clear conscience."
+
+"Perhaps you practise more self-deception than you know, Dr. Kramer,"
+said Eddie. "For instance, all your fine words about the strength and
+vitality of our new system--when I was a boy we licked the Vininese
+Confederacy. We couldn't do it today."
+
+"That's a matter of opinion. We're at peace now and we'll remain so."
+
+"Only because we have the Nuclear Beams. And look how we've botched
+that mess! Our scientists gave the process to the Vininese in order to
+patch together a peace when we could have destroyed their civilization
+completely."
+
+"And our own too--with the weight of such a crime on our group
+conscience. There's one thing you still must learn, Edward--scientific
+progress is made by the sharing of ideas, not the concealment of them.
+We build the future upon the truths of the past and the present. If
+some of those truths are hidden away we create falsely on utterly
+false foundations."
+
+Dr. Kramer pulled a manila envelope from his pocket and laid it on the
+table, pushing back his chair. "I must go, Edward; these are the notes
+on my lecture. As I told you before, I really came here for something
+else. I wanted to talk to you, to get to understand you better. I
+think I've learned a great deal."
+
+The little professor was no longer smiling and the gentle touch of
+banter was gone from his voice. Dirrul felt a creeping fear rise
+within him. How much had he unconsciously revealed? How many of his
+own beliefs had Dr. Kramer been able to read between the lines?
+
+Knowing them, would he guess Dirrul's connection with the Movement?
+The professor's bland naiveté could be the mask of a police informer.
+Dirrul shivered, remembering the sudden punishment that had overtaken
+Glenna and Hurd.
+
+At the door Dr. Kramer paused and said, "I'm entertaining two or three
+of the university faculty this evening, Edward. They've read some of
+the papers you have written for my class. I'd like to have you meet
+them. My apartment--eight-thirty."
+
+It was a command rather than an invitation. Dirrul accepted.
+
+
+III
+
+As soon as the professor had gone his fear vanished. What he had said
+to Dr. Kramer gave away no secrets and, in any case, he was crediting
+the professor with a perception he did not have. Ever since first
+joining the Movement, when he was still in school, Dirrul had taken
+such pains to conceal his motives that it would have required a good
+deal more than Dr. Kramer's clumsy prying to reveal them.
+
+He had deliberately patterned his attitudes and habits upon a
+composite average, even to a mild and starry-eyed criticism of the
+system which was more or less expected from the ambitious young men of
+the Air-command.
+
+Dr. Kramer's ecstatic praise of the system was the typical emotional
+reaction of the older generation. The professor may actually have been
+convinced of the truth of his own fuzzy propaganda. It was that sort
+of blind faith which still held the Planetary Union together.
+
+Before returning to the Air-Command base at noon, Dirrul sought out
+Paul Sorgel and reported that Glenna and Hurd were safely on their way
+to Vinin. Apologetically, he mentioned Dr. Kramer's invitation,
+expecting to elicit Sorgel's scorn. Instead the Vininese agent was
+enthusiastic.
+
+"Wonderful, Eddie!" he said. "Engineer it so they'll ask you back.
+We've never got one of our people in with the older science crowd
+before. Feel them out--we might pick up some converts. I won't need
+you at the next few meetings of the Movement--they'll be largely
+reorganizational, you know. I've been reading over Glenna's notes on
+the Plan. With one or two modifications we should be able to carry it
+out."
+
+At eight-thirty that evening Dirrul was admitted to Dr. Kramer's
+apartment. He was neither overwhelmed by the professor's excessive
+courtesy nor impressed by the other guests. They were from the faculty
+of the Advanced Air University, elderly, respected and distinguished,
+names known for a generation everywhere in the Planetary Union.
+
+To them, Edward Dirrul was merely a curiosity, a live specimen mounted
+for analysis. He had criticised their system. They intended to wring
+out the strands of his motivation, classify them, speculate and
+theorize upon them--and perhaps, ultimately, do the whole thing up as
+a monograph.
+
+Dirrul knew why Kramer had selected him for study rather than any of
+the current crop of university students who held similar views. A
+product of the educational philosophy of the Planetary Union, Dirrul
+was thoroughly adjusted and decidedly aware of both his own abilities
+and shortcomings.
+
+He was, first of all, gifted in the use of abstractions and
+generalities. In rare combination with this flair he had superior
+mechanical intelligence and a talent for expressive verbalization. He
+dealt easily in the subtle skills of logic. If he set his mind to it,
+he could erect absolute proofs of diametrically opposed truths and few
+minds could detect the delicately concealed flaws in the reasoning.
+
+On the negative side of the scale was Dirrul's complete lack of
+psycho-biological intelligence, or a sense of scientific semantics.
+Neither to him seemed important. He missed them not at all and
+resented the legal requirements that forced him to take Dr. Kramer's
+course before he could qualify as a space-pilot.
+
+The papers he had written for the professor were beautifully
+constructed patterns of logic, cast in well-turned phrases. They had
+clarified the criticism which others put inarticulately. It was the
+precision of his argument that disturbed Dr. Kramer and his faculty
+friends.
+
+Dirrul was amused as the distinguished scientists skillfully
+manipulated the conversation to create counter-arguments opposing his.
+It was a game played in abstractions, a technique of which Dirrul was
+an instinctive master. Apparently the scientists found some sort of
+excitement in the game, since on succeeding evenings Dirrul was
+swamped with invitations from other faculty members--so many, in fact,
+that he had to neglect the serious work of the Movement. When he
+complained to Paul Sorgel, the Vininese agent was delighted.
+
+"We can get along without you for awhile, Eddie," Sorgel said. "You're
+doing something much more important. You have a real in with the
+science crowd, and you've got them on the run because your arguments
+make sense. Every doubt you sow in their minds now will make our work
+just that much easier when the proper time comes."
+
+Occasionally Dirrul had an uneasy feeling that he was making no real
+progress at all, that when he talked to the scientists he was a
+dancing puppet dangling on invisible strings. It seemed impossible
+that the scientists of the Ad-Air University could be so repeatedly
+defeated by his logic. Slowly, however, he reasoned his way to an
+explanation.
+
+The scientists, like the system itself, were in the last wild frenzy
+of a decaying social order. They had lived so long in the atmosphere
+of relative truths, they had so carefully schooled themselves to avoid
+all absolutes, that they were unable to elude the simplest processes
+of logic. Their very efforts to be objective made them too honest to
+reject a conclusion once Dirrul had demonstrated the careful structure
+that seemed to support it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A month passed. Dirrul felt divorced from the Movement, existing in
+suspended animation in a cloud of wordy unreality. Then abruptly the
+slow-moving dream ended. Late one night Paul Sorgel slipped into
+Dirrul's apartment and announced in an emotionless whisper, "The
+Plan's ready. You'll have to carry the details to Vinin. We can't use
+the teleray--the Union monitors might pick up the message and decode
+it."
+
+"Naturally our Vininese Headquarters will want to know, Paul," said
+Eddie, "but can't that wait? We'll need every man here when we--"
+
+Sorgel interrupted him. "I've made one or two changes in Glenna's
+original plan. It was too impractical. A handful of men can't take
+over half a galaxy."
+
+"Glenna and Hurd weren't after the entire Planetary Union,
+Paul--that's out of the question. We meant to liberate Agron first.
+The capital is here and for awhile the government would be disrupted.
+When the people on the other planets saw how much better our social
+organization had become, modeled on the Vininese system, they would
+stage their own revolutions just like ourselves."
+
+Sorgel laughed scornfully. "And in the meantime, of course, none of
+them would think of attacking you and throwing your people out?"
+
+"Not if we seized the Nuclear Beam Transmitters," said Dirrul, "no
+space-fleet could come near us then."
+
+"Eddie, you've lived in Agron too long. You're not thinking straight
+when you try to build the Plan around a single weapon."
+
+"Why not, Paul? It's a perfect defense. In less than thirty seconds
+the Beam Transmitters can charge the entire stratospheric envelope of
+Agron. Nothing can move through it without disintegrating, yet life on
+the surface of the planet would go on quite normally because the
+atmosphere serves as an insulation."
+
+"Technically it's a change in the form of energy, not a
+disintegration," Sorgel reminded him. "The beamed electrons unite with
+the atoms of visible material substances and alter them. I quite
+understand the process, Eddie--Vinin has the Beam too, you know."
+
+"Because the Agronian scientists gave you the specifications!"
+
+"That always has rankled, hasn't it?" said Sorgel.
+
+"Yes," Dirrul admitted. "If the Vininese scientists had discovered the
+Beam-reaction first they would have conquered the galaxy."
+
+"Conquer is a nasty word, Eddie," Sorgel said softly. "Vinin makes no
+conquests. Let's put it differently and say we would have used the
+Beam to bring peace to the galaxy instead of splitting it in two as it
+is now."
+
+"Glenna's Plan can change all that, at least here on Agron."
+
+"Face the facts, Eddie! A few conscientious people with ideals can't
+take over a planet. The Movement has its crews trained to capture the
+Beam Transmitters. You'll isolate Agron and seize the government
+offices simultaneously. What happens then?"
+
+"Our people will rise and join us," said Eddie. "We'll create a new
+government modeled on Vinin's and we'll have young leaders instead of
+murky thinkers like Dr. Kramer."
+
+"That's effective propaganda for speechmaking, but--"
+
+"Glenna pounded away at it too, Paul," said Eddie. "It was the most
+telling line in winning our new crop of recruits."
+
+"Which is precisely why the police disposed of her. But it won't work.
+The people won't rise. A mob is lethargic, too willing to keep things
+as they are. Here on Agron you've been coddled too long with luxuries
+and easy living. You have to prod the mob awake with a shock-force, a
+force coming from the outside."
+
+"How, Paul? We haven't enough people in the Movement to put on any
+real show of strength. We can't even get outside."
+
+"Now you understand the changes I've made in Glenna's Plan. You people
+in the Movement will seize the Beam Transmitters as originally
+planned. Then you'll simply hold them and keep them decommissioned
+long enough for a Vininese space-fleet to land. We'll set up your new
+government for you."
+
+"And the rest of the Planetary Union will go to war!"
+
+"It hardly matters," said Paul. "Once we're here the Beams will
+protect us against counterattack and every planet in the Vininese
+Confederacy has the same defense. One by one we can liberate the
+planets of the Union in the same way. But the timing is vital, of
+course--that's why you have to go to Vinin."
+
+"I had a vacation leave only three months ago. I can't get tourist
+passage now without--"
+
+"I've considered that. You'll have to have your own space-ship."
+
+"Now wait a minute, Paul! It's one thing to borrow a surface jet but a
+space-cruiser...!"
+
+"A cruiser, yes--not an old cargo ship. And you can handle that
+without a crew."
+
+"It can't be done, Paul." Dirrul held his Glo-Wave nervously to the
+end of a cigarette. "Besides, I want to think this through carefully
+before I make up my mind."
+
+"A merchant ship made a crash landing at Barney's emergency field
+yesterday," said Paul. "The damage was slight, but the pilot--unfortunately
+the pilot is dead." Sorgel smiled enigmatically. "Barney's one of our best
+men. He's been on the lookout for a chance like this for weeks.
+
+"You'll leave tonight. Avoid the regular space lanes. I'm guessing
+you'll be on Vinin in a hundred days at the outside. On the fiftieth
+day after that--exactly one hundred and fifty days from now--our
+Vininese space-fleet must make a landing on Agron."
+
+"I'll be missed, Paul--they'll make inquiries."
+
+"And get no satisfactory answers."
+
+Pacing the floor, Dirrul asked tensely, "Does everyone in the Movement
+know about this?"
+
+"The vote was made unanimously yesterday."
+
+"One of the others must have a vacation leave coming up. Send him.
+We're not at war with Vinin. He could take one of the regular space
+excursions."
+
+"I can't send a message in writing. It would be picked up by the
+customs police. And you're the only one who can carry it verbally,
+Eddie. You know the whole background because you worked with Glenna
+and Hurd. You've been in the Movement longer than any of the others."
+
+"Why not go yourself, Paul?"
+
+"I can do more for the liberation if I stay here."
+
+"I wish I'd been at the meeting yesterday when the vote was taken. I'd
+have liked to discuss it with the others before--"
+
+"Why so many questions, Eddie? Why so many doubts all of a sudden?"
+Sorgel stood and faced Dirrul, holding his shoulders in a grip that
+hurt. "Are you trying to back out? Maybe it wasn't a good thing to let
+you play around with the science boys after all. Be honest with me,
+Eddie. If you're not sure where you stand, say so. There's no room in
+the Movement for traitors."
+
+When Dirrul said nothing Sorgel added in a voice that rang with
+fervor, "You're the only man in the Movement who has had any training
+as a space-pilot. It depends on you now--everything you've ever
+dreamed of, everything Glenna and Hurd wanted. Can you forget what the
+Agronian police did to Glenna? Is your courage any less than hers?"
+Again Sorgel paused but still Dirrul said nothing. "The future of your
+world depends on you, Eddie--don't let it down."
+
+"I'll go," Dirrul whispered.
+
+As Eddie made up his mind his internal tension relaxed and he was
+filled with a sense of well-being. When he thought about it he
+couldn't understand why he had hesitated--unless perhaps what Sorgel
+suggested was true--that his contact with the Ad-Air faculty had
+blunted and nearly perverted his established sense of values.
+
+An hour later Dirrul boarded the battered antiquated space cargo
+carrier on the launching rack at Barney's emergency field. At the last
+minute Sorgel pressed a curious disk into his hand. Made of a very
+light metal and suspended from a short chain it was two inches in
+diameter and covered with a complex grid design.
+
+"Put it around your neck before you land, Eddie. Don't remove under
+any circumstances until you report. Give it to the Chief then. He'll
+know I sent you because it's my own identification activator." Sorgel
+clasped Dirrul's hand warmly. "When you land on Vinin take the North
+Field below the capital. It's the HQ operational center. Use Wave-code
+three-seven-three and they'll know you're friendly."
+
+
+IV
+
+After the launching space-flight was normally a monotonous routine.
+The course was charted by automatic navigators and the vast pattern of
+interlocking machinery and safety devices was electronically
+controlled by robot relays from the pilot master-panel. The chief
+function of a trained space-pilot, aside from his services as a
+diplomat, was to handle emergency situations for which automatic
+responses could not be built into the machinery.
+
+Dirrul, however, could not depend a great deal upon the robot devices.
+He had to avoid the well-traveled and well-charted commercial
+space-lanes. He had to be constantly on the alert for the telltale
+white of a police cruiser. A cargo carrier was the slowest ship in the
+universe--Dirrul could outrun nothing, not even a playboy's sport
+jalopy, and inspection by the customs police would have been
+disastrous.
+
+He followed a roundabout route, keeping as far from inhabited planets
+as he could, and he made good time. In ninety-five days he had reached
+the mythical border in space, which divided the territory of the
+Planetary Union and the Vininese Confederacy.
+
+He was almost at midpoint in the galaxy. On the glazed screen of his
+space-map the mirrored pinpricks of sun systems glittered like
+microscopic gems scattered over the curve of a gigantic black saucer.
+Dirrul had never been so far from Agron. He felt a stifling sense of
+insignificance.
+
+The meaning of time as he understood it was somehow overwhelmed by the
+immensity of space. Now and yesterday, today and tomorrow, became a
+single unity. Dirrul had a new sense of the past in terms of the
+present. His mind groped for word symbols that he understood which
+could crystalize the shadowy new concept filling his mind.
+
+New understanding seemed to arise from the space-map. Somewhere among
+the glowing points of light was the Place of the Beginning, a single
+planet called Earth. In the far-distant past Earthmen had made
+themselves rational beings. But for centuries thereafter they had made
+no further progress, apparently appalled by the audacity of such
+presumptive evolution. They had fought through a long primitive period
+of violence, erecting system on system and philosophy upon philosophy
+to conceal, destroy and wipe out their own biological machinery.
+
+Then out of a final orgy of death and terror the Earthmen had grasped
+the meaning and the responsibility of the Rational Potential. They had
+understood the reality of being.
+
+Within a century after that they had conquered space. They had found
+peoples like themselves occasionally--but more often races that had
+followed different biological adaptations to different environments.
+Wherever there seemed to be a spark of primitive rationality the
+Earthmen had stayed and patiently taught the Rational Potential of
+being, which they had learned for themselves only after such
+bloodshed.
+
+The galaxy was theirs, in a sense, for it thought in the patterns of
+Earthmen, although long ago their direct influence had waned. They
+were a legend and an ideal, lost in the vastness of space, yet bound
+fast into the cultures of all peoples.
+
+Yet somewhere the Earthmen must have failed, somewhere there must have
+been a flaw in their teaching. Fifty years earlier, as the Agronians
+measured time, the galaxy had been torn apart by war. The Agronians
+had led one group of planets, the Vininese another. Planet after
+planet was seared by deadly new weapons--world after world died in the
+orange flame of gaudy atomic disintegration. Slowly the power of Vinin
+crept across the sky until the Vininese ruled half the galaxy.
+
+Their first defeat had come unexpectedly. Their great space-armada
+swung in on Agron, while the people crowded in terror in their flimsy
+raid shelters. But the Vininese ships had vanished high in the air.
+Not even debris had fallen on the planet.
+
+It was the first use of the Nuclear Beams. Dirrul had been a schoolboy
+when the Agronian scientists announced their discovery. He remembered
+the exciting thrill of pride, recalled how he and his schoolmates had
+dreamed of destroying the Vininese with the new weapon.
+
+He remembered too the galling bitterness he had felt when the
+scientists announced that they had made peace instead.
+
+They had had sound reasons, of course. They said the Beams had a
+limited value. They could be used only defensively to girdle a single
+planet in the stratospheric level of its atmosphere. Elsewhere they
+were harmless. To compound the spectacular timidity, the scientists
+had given away the secret to all comers, including the Vininese. They
+had an argument for that particular idiocy too--if each planet could
+protect itself so easily from all external attack its people could
+freely decide for themselves their galactic allegiance or maintain
+isolated independence.
+
+The Planetary Union had been formed and members of the Vininese
+Confederacy invited to join it. Not a people anywhere in the
+Confederacy made even tentative exploration of the offer while five
+sun systems of the Union later joined the Vininese. That was the fact
+that had ultimately prodded Dirrul into joining the Movement.
+
+Later, when he read the pamphlets brought from Vinin, he had clarified
+his purposes. On the one hand lay the waste, the confusion, the
+uncertainty of Agron. Scientists who talked forever of hypotheses and
+were afraid to stand firm for any absolute truths--moralists who
+qualified even the simplest standards of right and wrong--philosophers
+who glorified a condition of eternal chaos which they called an open
+mind.
+
+On the other hand lay the clean efficiency of Vinin. Scientific
+certainty, and the progress that stemmed from it--the Space-dragon
+instead of the Safe-sweet candy, a clear social organization in which
+the individual was directed by established and inflexible principles.
+
+The whole of it was history as Dirrul had learned it, the chronology
+of the past. As he looked on the star map of the galaxy, at midpoint
+between the two great unions of planets, the meaning of the past began
+to change. The chronology fell into a new perspective.
+
+Against the vast expanse of space time twisted into a new
+relationship. Time and space began to equate with an exciting
+synonymity. History was not the past, dead and numbered--history was
+now. All things, all space, all time, were forever fixed at the
+instant of now.
+
+In Dirrul's mind a tumult of facts trembled on the verge of a
+startling new order--the atomic structure of all energy and the black
+saucer of the galaxy. The violent spasms the Earthmen had suffered
+before they found the Rational Potential and the devastation of the
+Galactic War.
+
+But before he could assess such new values and verbalize the new
+generalization the antiquated warning system of his ship twanged
+tinnily. On the control panel screen he saw the trim outline of a
+white Agronian police ship. A moment later the voice came over the
+speaker, ordering him to state his permit registry and his
+destination.
+
+Dragged so suddenly back to reality, Dirrul reacted in panic. It was a
+routine inquiry. He might have bluffed his way clear. Instead he put
+the cargo ship at top speed toward Vinin and watched helplessly while
+the patrol cruiser closed relentlessly in.
+
+"Stand for search!" the voice commanded.
+
+When he did nothing the police shot a warning rocket over his bow. A
+second shot struck the rear of the cargo ship and tore away a section
+of landing gear. Swearing, Dirrul tried to maneuver out of range, and
+to a certain extent he was successful. But piloting skill could not
+make up for the cumbersome bulk of his unarmed ship. Two more blasts
+hit him, collapsing the forward compartment and knocking out one power
+tube.
+
+At the point of triumph, however, the police patrol turned away and
+left Dirrul limping alone in space. For a moment he was puzzled. In
+another ten minutes they could have boarded the cargo carrier and made
+him prisoner. But he understood when he glanced again at the star
+map--the Agronian police had pursued him far into Vininese territory.
+If Vininese patrols had found them there it might have created an
+unpleasant intergalactic incident.
+
+Dirrul made a quick survey of the damage. He had only one power tube
+intact--beyond that, the cargo carrier was wrecked and he had on board
+nothing with which to make repairs. He could move ahead only at
+quarter-speed.
+
+Sorgel had put a time limit of one hundred days on the trip to Vinin.
+Headquarters had to know by then of the Plan on Agron. Dirrul had five
+days left and as the hours ran out he was still grinding slowly toward
+the outer atmosphere of Vinin. Quite aware that proper security
+demanded the message be delivered in person, Dirrul nonetheless faced
+the alternative of losing everything if he waited.
+
+Logically weighing all factors, he concluded he would not be risking
+too much, considering the stakes, if he used the teleray. Agron
+monitors could pick it up, of course, and no doubt the outpost
+stations were instructed to record all messages emanating from within
+the territory of Vinin. But Dirrul knew the Air-Command.
+
+They wallowed in the same luxury and comfort enjoyed by the rest of
+the Planetary Union. Outposts personnel, so far from the capital,
+would be even less likely to take their duties seriously than Dirrul's
+own unit.
+
+He tried to make the information enigmatic to the curious and at least
+suggestive to the Vininese. He used the landing Wave-code 373. The
+small red light on the control panel glowed and he knew he had
+established contact. In carefully chosen Vininese he spoke into the
+teleray mouthpiece.
+
+"Sorgel requires help for Glenna-Hurd Plan. Exactly fifty days, their
+time."
+
+He repeated the message. As an afterthought he gave his own position
+and asked for emergency repair assistance. The whole meaning hinged
+upon the names of Glenna and Hurd. However, since they had been taken
+to Vinin, they should already have outlined the Plan to the Vininese
+command. If there were any doubts Headquarters could teleray for
+clarification. When his speaker remained silent Dirrul assumed he had
+been understood.
+
+He began to feel the pull of Vininese gravity, found himself in
+trouble with his ship. He tried to keep the disabled cargo carrier
+relatively stationary, so that the Vininese repair ships could locate
+him. With only one power tube, however, maneuver was impossible. The
+battered ship plunged out of control toward the planet.
+
+For an hour Dirrul fought with all the skill he knew. A thousand feet
+above the surface he managed to force the ship to level off
+temporarily. He had no time to seek a proper landing area and in any
+case his gear had been shot away.
+
+There was a wide flat plain directly below him, in the distance the
+towering mass of a large city silhouetted against a range of
+mountains. Dirrul headed his ship for the open fields, setting the
+safety devices for a crash landing.
+
+He hung around his neck the identification disk Sorgel had given him,
+tucking it beneath his tunic. If he were hurt in the landing, a
+Vininese might find him, and the disk would indicate that he was
+important enough to be taken to the Headquarters Command. If his
+teleray hadn't been understood there might still be a chance for him
+to make his report in person.
+
+The ship crashed against the hard ground. Dirrul felt a wrenching pain
+as the automatic safety arms pinioned him fast to cushion the fall,
+before hurling him free of the blazing control room. After that he
+lost consciousness.
+
+
+V
+
+When Dirrul opened his eyes it was after dark but the triple moons of
+Vinin were full and the landscape glowed with a yellowish light. He
+had fallen into a ditch which ran beside a narrow, green-paved road.
+In the distance, hidden in a dense copse of blue tree-like
+vegetation, he saw the fragments of his wrecked ship. The purple grass
+of Vinin spread richly all around him, damp and warm. At the bottom of
+the ditch a reddish trickle of liquid washed over his feet.
+
+His throat ached with thirst. His tongue clung like sand to the roof
+of his mouth. He knew that an Agronian could live in the Vininese
+atmosphere but he was uncertain whether his body could assimilate the
+native liquids. Yet to ease the torture he dipped his hand into the
+red fluid and rubbed a few drops over his lips. The sting of salt
+increased his torment.
+
+His body shuddered with pain as he pulled himself to his feet. He
+crept a few feet along the green highway, and slowly his will mastered
+his strength so that he could walk erect. He began to orient himself a
+little. On the horizon he saw the skyline of the city he had observed
+from the air and he knew he was following the road in the right
+direction.
+
+But the distance was greater than he had estimated. He walked for an
+hour and the city still seemed no closer. Nor had he seen any sign of
+habitation where he might go for help, nothing except the towering
+endless yellow stone wall which he had been following for more than
+half an hour. There was neither gate nor break in the stone. Atop the
+wall regularly spaced brackets held three naked wires in place.
+
+The wall probably guarded the estate of a Vininese official, he
+decided. In that case the wires were either a warning device or a
+charged trap against thieves. Dirrul was puzzled by the obvious
+deduction. Such things were necessary on Agron to protect important
+installations like the Beam Transmitters--but he had hardly expected
+there would be a need for them on Vinin. Yet when he considered it
+objectively, why not? Every system of society, no matter how ideal,
+would produce inevitable malcontents--there were fools among the
+Vininese, as there were among other peoples.
+
+Dirrul saw a towering gate in the wall and ran ahead eagerly, only to
+fall in disappointment against the thick metal grille. The gate was
+locked by a concealed device he could not locate. At a considerable
+distance inside the wall was a second, higher than the first. Dirrul
+saw a faint light at the inner gate and assumed there was a guard of
+some sort stationed there. He tried with all his strength to cry out
+for help but his throat was dust-dry. He could utter only a faint
+whisper.
+
+When he tried to go on he was overcome with exhaustion. He staggered a
+few feet beyond the gate and collapsed into the ditch. He lay face
+down in the warm purple grass, his swollen tongue hanging limply from
+his mouth. Imperceptibly the thirst began to diminish. After a
+moment's speculation Dirrul understood why and crushed a handful of
+the purple grass against his lips. It was warm and sweet--a comforting
+liquid began to flow down his throat. He plunged his head luxuriously
+into a thick mass of the weed, breathing deeply the sweet odor of the
+crushed blades.
+
+A silent grey vehicle darted along the green road and jerked to a stop
+in front of the gate. It came so quickly Dirrul had no time to call
+out. The Vininese driver stood up and bawled orders at the inner gate.
+A faint voice replied. The driver shouted again. The gate swung open
+and the vehicle moved inside.
+
+Bewildered, Dirrul sat up, his head reeling. He understood a little
+Vininese, not enough to translate exactly what had been said but
+enough to make out a tantalizing half-meaning. The driver was
+searching all the work camps, he had said, for the Agronian girl,
+Glenna. He wanted to check something or other to see if she were here.
+
+Work camp? Dirrul decided he must have got the word wrong. Glenna and
+Hurd might still be in hospitals but if they had recovered they would
+be honored citizens of Vinin. Still--what sort of hospital would have
+both double walls and alarm wires?
+
+Only an asylum for hopeless mental cases! The realization made Dirrul
+cold with a terrible fear. Glenna--hopelessly insane!
+
+To save the Movement it was vital for Dirrul to make his report
+immediately. What help could the Vininese get from a madwoman? He
+sprang up and ran dizzily to the gate. Before he could shout for the
+guard shadowy figures rose up around him, silently closing great hairy
+hands over his mouth and dragging him back across the road.
+
+Tied and gagged Dirrul watched while the black-robed creatures worked
+stealthily at the central bars of the gate with tiny blue-flaming
+torches. Beneath their flowing capes they were beings like himself,
+which indicated that they were either Agronian or Vininese, for by the
+perverse chance of biological adaptation the people of the two planets
+were so structurally similar that even intermarriage was possible. One
+by one they cut out the bars until the span in the gate was wide
+enough for them to work their way through.
+
+For a moment the band stood in the road, apparently talking. At least
+their lips moved and their hands fluttered expressively but Dirrul
+heard no sound. Reaching a decision they went through the gate in
+single file, carrying long vicious weapons with them. Two of the
+black-caped men came and stood guard on either side of Dirrul.
+
+Whatever these vandals were doing they were working in stealth and
+fear and Dirrul realized their aim must be illegal. He fought to break
+free of his bonds so that he might warn the loyal Vininese garrison.
+The two guards shoved him back roughly. One of them grabbed Dirrul's
+tunic in a claw grip and the cloth tore open, revealing Sorgel's
+identification disk.
+
+Both guards bent over him, fingering the disk, talking soundlessly
+with their facile fingers. Suddenly they jerked the disk off, snapping
+the chain. At the same moment a rolling explosion from within the
+wall shook the earth.
+
+Dirrul heard a great noise and a terrifying fear filled his mind. It
+was a steady undiminishing fear that gripped every muscle of his body.
+His throat was ice-cold. His heart pounded and gasped for breath.
+Every nerve-end in his body quivered and his imagination was swamped
+with a flood of shattering ephemeral horrors.
+
+Nothing could shake off the terror. Dirrul's skill with reason and
+logic failed him. It was impossible to organize his thinking to combat
+the sensory shock waves disrupting his thoughts. Logical patterns made
+no sense. The very process of trying to build meaning into them--the
+process of thinking itself--left him weak and trembling.
+
+The guards watched his terror for a moment, watched while he clung
+close to the ground, trying to dig his fingers into it. Then one of
+them laughed--a piercing discordant shriek, shrilling louder than the
+din behind the wall. The second man, snarling viciously, kicked Dirrul
+in the ribs.
+
+For Dirrul the blaze of pain was almost a relief. As his body
+responded to it on a level of instinct, the chattering terror in his
+mind diminished. A second blow on the head sent him reeling close to
+the brink of unconsciousness. His perceptive reactions went slightly
+out of focus.
+
+In a wavering mist he saw the black figures emerge from the gate,
+dragging a dozen or more captives with them. A second explosion rocked
+the earth and flames leaped high behind the yellow wall. In the glare
+Dirrul recognized Glenna, struggling frantically in the arms of her
+masked captor.
+
+Dirrul's memory after that was a vague patchwork of unrelated
+episodes. He saw huge saddled reptilian bipeds dragged out of the
+concealing brush. The captives were bound in the saddles and the
+black-robed figures mounted behind them. Later two of the men pulled
+Dirrul up and tied him across a saddle too.
+
+At a sickening gallop the caravan moved away from the green highway,
+striking out over the purple plain. For a while Dirrul lost rational
+control of sensation. He felt but without understanding. His brain
+pulsed in a continuous terror that seemed to resolve itself into
+sound--a continuous high-pitched scream coming from within his own
+mind. His body throbbed with pain and nausea wrenched emptily at the
+muscles of his stomach. But he could not sort out the feelings,
+classify them or adjust to them.
+
+At the edge of the plain the caravan turned up a steep rocky trail
+which led into the ragged range of mountains banked behind the
+Vininese city. They came to a stop in a stony ravine, concealed
+beneath a tangle of gigantic purple-leafed vines.
+
+Dirrul's captors dismounted and removed their black cloaks, hiding
+them among the rocks. Underneath they wore the warm gray skintight
+workers' clothing of Vinin. The majority left their animals tethered
+to the roots of the vine and began the steep descent on foot to the
+city. Only three remained behind to guard the prisoners.
+
+They built a small fire and prepared food, serving the hot sweet
+chunks of white meat in large wicker baskets. As soon as Dirrul
+discovered that he could stomach the food he wolfed his share
+hungrily. The guards brought him more. He felt better. Except for the
+sing-song ringing in his head he might have been able to think clearly
+enough to evaluate his own position.
+
+But that could be done later. He was overcome by an immense
+drowsiness. He relaxed and slept.
+
+
+VI
+
+A shrill scream woke him with a start of horror. His captors had taken
+him from his saddle and propped him against a mound of rocks, along
+with the other prisoners. His muscles were numb and dead, so limp it
+was almost impossible for him to turn his head. Faintly the whirring
+terror whispered in his mind.
+
+Dirrul's eyes focused slowly on the clearing. One of the prisoners had
+been carried there, close to the fire. It was Glenna. Two of her
+captors held her while the third bent over her head, probing her ear
+with a sharp instrument. His arm moved. Glenna screamed and fainted.
+For a moment Dirrul saw the side of her face smeared with a spreading
+stain of blood. Then nausea swept over him. When he opened his eyes
+again the three men were working over another prisoner at the fire.
+
+Vaguely Dirrul knew he had to escape. He forgot the Movement--he
+thought of nothing any loftier than his own personal survival. The
+idea was elemental, built upon the simplest sort of observation and
+hypothesis.
+
+Yet it came slowly and painfully, as if he had just tried to
+understand after one reading the Cranmor-Frasher Theory of Diminishing
+Corelatives. As he verbalized the conclusion two things happened--the
+drug-like languor in his muscles began to disperse and the shrilling
+note of terror burst up loud in his mind once more.
+
+Two of the men brought their last victim back from the fire and laid
+his body on the stones close to Dirrul. Dirrul feigned sleep when they
+stood over him. One of them prodded him with the tip of a dusty
+boot--then they both laughed.
+
+They went back to the fire and talked soundlessly to their companions,
+holding up the identification disk which had been ripped from Dirrul's
+neck hours before. That amused them briefly, until one of the three
+snatched the disk and hurled it toward the mouth of the ravine in
+violent anger.
+
+The three men pulled thick white skins together near the fire and
+crept into them. Dirrul waited until he was sure they slept. It was
+the only chance he would have to escape, but when he tried to creep
+away his hands collapsed from sheer terror. The crying fear in his
+mind was so loud his head seemed to vibrate physically with the
+sound.
+
+Thought was impossible. Judgment and decision were impossible. If he
+tried to consider even a problem as simple as the safest means of
+passing the dying fire--reason failed him. He could weigh nothing
+critically--he could not consider probable courses of rational action.
+
+Nonetheless he inched forward. It took all the courage and stamina he
+possessed. Gradually a strange and foggy understanding formed in his
+brain. The terror seemed to die if he planned nothing, merely
+responding without thought to the instinctive urge to escape. Let
+instinct do the trick then.
+
+Detached from the control panel of his cerebral cortex his body
+mechanism functioned perfectly. It was like a space-ship smoothly
+piloted by its automatic navigators. Dirrul gave himself over to his
+own built-in stimulus-response relays and the screeching fear
+shriveled and died.
+
+Calm and unhurried he walked past the fire and the sleeping men. As
+calmly he searched the mouth of the ravine for Sorgel's disk. When he
+found it he stuffed it into the pocket of his tunic and strode
+confidently along the trail that led down from the hills.
+
+It was dawn. In the pink morning light he could see the Vininese city
+at his feet, neat, clean, well-blocked streets and towering buildings
+of black stone. On the outskirts were the circular space-fields and
+the long low flat-roofed interplanetary freight depots. Farther away,
+dotting the countryside at regular intervals, were curious
+block-shaped windowless structures surrounded by double walls.
+
+Dirrul had never seen anything like them before but, through a process
+of judicial elimination, he decided they must be the Vininese Beam
+Transmitters. The defense of Vinin was remarkably thorough, far
+surpassing anything of a similar nature on Agron.
+
+It came to him with something of a shock that he was thinking
+rationally once more. His mind was completely clear. He felt ashamed
+of the foolish, groundless terror that had unnerved him in the ravine.
+He tried to understand what had happened to him but it was beyond
+analysis. In retrospect he realized that the danger had been less than
+what he faced on any normal day in the Air-Command emergency
+maintenance service.
+
+The only logical explanation was the food they had given him. It must
+have been heavily drugged with a new poison known to the Vininese.
+Dirrul was tempted to go back and rescue Glenna, if she were still
+alive after the torture to which she had been subjected. But he knew
+it was more important for him to contact Vininese Headquarters first.
+He had a message to deliver. Glenna herself would have wanted that.
+
+In two hours Dirrul was on the plain again. All the suffering of the
+past few hours was gone. The plentiful purple grass had quenched his
+thirst and surprisingly eased his hunger as well. He felt keenly alert
+and alive. The sun was warm, the air was balmy. He was on Vinin.
+
+Spiritually he had come home, to the thing he believed in. Not many
+men had such opportunity to realize their dreams of perfection. To cap
+the triumph Dirrul knew it might still be possible to make his report
+and save the Movement on Agron.
+
+From the top of a purple-swathed knoll he looked down across a
+twisting red stream toward the suburbs of the city. Magnificent
+black-stone villas, surrounded by stylized gardens, were on both sides
+of the green highway.
+
+Further on, close to the city, were the crowded workers' quarters,
+behind them, hidden in a faint mist, the rectangular masses of public
+buildings reaching up toward the stars. This was as Paul Sorgel had so
+often described it. Such grandeur could only belong to the capital
+city of the Vininese Confederacy.
+
+Under the brow of the knoll Dirrul saw one of the stone block
+buildings within its protective double walls. A huge trumpet-like
+transmitter was exposed at the top of the structure. In some ways it
+resembled the Beam Transmitters on Agron but the differences were so
+striking Dirrul knew it was a totally new device--possibly a more
+efficient variation invented by the Vininese. The faint hum of
+machinery and the regular movement of the sending tube indicated that
+the machine was running--but for what purpose Dirrul could only guess.
+
+The yard between the two walls was patrolled by a smartly disciplined
+score of Vininese. Dirrul considered going to them to ask for
+transportation to the city but changed his mind. It was very possible
+that the installation was secret. The guards might have had
+instructions to dispose immediately of any intruder. On the whole it
+seemed wiser to go a little farther to one of the walled villas.
+
+Dirrul walked half a thousand feet along the green highway and turned
+up the drive leading toward one of the sprawling mansions. As he
+passed the portals of the open gate an alarm bell clanged--seconds
+later five Vininese infantry surrounded him, prodding him into the
+house with their gleaming weapons. In precise Vininese, carefully
+enunciated, Dirrul tried to explain what he wanted--but the guards
+made no reply, merely staring at him with cold glazed eyes,
+comprehending nothing.
+
+They threw him roughly into a dark room, where a slim Vininese waited
+in a lounge chair. As Dirrul's eyes grew accustomed to the faint light
+he saw that the Vininese held a snub-nosed rocket-pistol.
+
+"Your permit?" the Vininese asked languidly.
+
+"Yesterday I came here from--"
+
+"Then you have no permit. I must shoot you, of course."
+
+"Sir, I have a message from Agron! You must take me to Headquarters!"
+
+"Oh, you're a tourist. But this is a prohibited area. From the dust
+on your tunic, I take it you have done a great deal of walking. A
+pity, my friend--naturally you've seen the transmitters."
+
+"We have them on Agron but it is of no importance."
+
+The Vininese threw back his head and laughed, "Oh, no--of no
+importance--you have seen nothing!"
+
+"I do not understand you," Dirrul said desperately. "My Vininese is
+very poor. But you must help me. I bring news of the Movement on Agron
+and time is short." Anxiously Dirrul plunged into his story, tripping
+repeatedly over the involved syntax of Vinin to his host's obvious
+amusement.
+
+Eventually, however, he made his point, for the tall Vininese said,
+"Then you must be the agent who sent the teleray report. We've been
+looking for you, sir. We feared, after you crashed, that you might
+have been taken by the vagabonds." Still holding Dirrul centered in
+the gunsight the Vininese picked up a portable teleray and asked for
+Headquarters.
+
+While he waited he added, "You must forgive this reception, my friend
+from Agron. We have been having so much trouble with the vagabonds
+lately we must all go armed. Here in the transmission area we must be
+particularly alert."
+
+His tone was warm but the gun never wavered. When he made his
+connection he spoke rapidly into the mouthpiece, too rapidly for
+Dirrul to work out an accurate translation. It seemed, however, that
+the conversation was centered around the transmitters rather than the
+report Dirrul had to make. The Vininese finished the dialogue and
+smiled engagingly at Dirrul.
+
+"I am to take you to the capital, my friend," he said. "They are
+preparing a reception for you. You are a hero of Vinin, to have braved
+so much for the cause."
+
+The Vininese came forward suddenly and pulled aside the torn cloth at
+the throat of Dirrul's tunic.
+
+"But you--you must have a disk!" The Vininese was suddenly frightened.
+"There is no tourist stamp on your arm. I don't understand."
+
+"Paul Sorgel loaned me his when I left Agron." Dirrul felt in his
+tunic pocket. "He said I was to give it to the Chief when I made my
+report but if you must see it now--"
+
+"No, no--by all means, keep it." The tall man's voice was pleasant
+again. "I was simply afraid that someone might have come who--but it
+is nothing. I am weary from all this vigilance against the vagabonds.
+It is hard to think realistically."
+
+"I was surprised to see so much lawlessness on Vinin."
+
+"Then you're very naive, my friend. There's an element like that among
+all people, although I must admit ours here have suddenly become
+excessively active. Their attacks are so systematic and so
+well-organized! Hardly a night passes without trouble at a work camp
+or a transmitter station.
+
+"Your transmitters are different from ours. Have you developed an
+improvement in technique?"
+
+"They are, curious, aren't they? You must ask the Chief to tell you
+all about them." The Vininese chuckled with delight. "I wouldn't want
+to spoil his surprise by letting you in on the secret first."
+
+
+VII
+
+The Vininese drove Dirrul to the city in a heavily armed surface car.
+Two of the infantrymen sat behind them, their rocket guns ready on
+their knees. It was testimony to the efficiency and organization of
+Vinin that such a finished reception could be prepared on such short
+notice. Dirrul's first intimation of the scope of the ceremony came
+when they stopped at a school to be cheered by the pupils.
+
+Rank upon rank of boys and girls lined up smartly behind the high wire
+fence. They ranged in ages from tots, barely able to stand, to young
+people in late adolescence. Except for the round metal disks, which
+all of them wore, they were completely naked.
+
+"Clothing breeds such false modesty and so many foolish frustrations,"
+Dirrul's host explained. "On Vinin every child is reared in completely
+objective equality. As soon as we take them from their parents--about
+the time when they're first learning to walk--we give them
+identification disks. Before that, when they're in the instinct
+period, the disks aren't necessary.
+
+"After their basic education we classify them. The leader-class is
+issued permanent disks and the others give theirs up. The adjustment
+is something very severe but on the whole the casualties are light."
+Suddenly the Vininese seized Dirrul's hand and looked into his eyes.
+"I trust you follow me, my friend?"
+
+"Yes," Dirrul answered. Reason led him to a conclusion as he looked at
+the massed children, a conclusion he could not bring himself to face.
+He felt a new kind of fear, as cold as the depths of space and as
+devoid of emotion. Instead of trusting to his own logic Dirrul
+struggled to find a flaw in it--for a man cannot easily watch his
+dream turn to dust in his hands.
+
+They drove on into the city. Rows of men and women in working clothes
+lined the streets, cheering wildly in unison. Crossed Vininese flags
+were draped between the buildings and brave-colored streamers danced
+in the wind.
+
+"A reception is good for them," the Vininese said. "We need heroes
+occasionally. It's fortunate you came when you did. The vagabonds have
+had a disturbing effect on morale and it's impossible to suppress the
+news entirely."
+
+The vehicle stopped before the towering government building. Dirrul
+was led up a flight of stone steps to a wide porch overlooking the
+mass of cheering upturned faces in the public square. He stood
+motionless while speeches were made and gay ribbon was draped around
+his neck. The air shook with bright explosions--a huge flag was
+unfurled over the porch--band music began to blare and a tidal wave of
+precision-trained Vininese infantry wheeled into the square.
+
+An official touched Dirrul's arm. "You must take the salute of our
+work-leaders now."
+
+Dirrul was pushed back against the stone railing as an orderly mob
+filed past, blank-faced and chattering with meaningless pleasure. Many
+of them pressed forward to touch his hand before the guards tactfully
+hurried them on. When the organized confusion was at its height a tiny
+square of paper was slipped into his hand.
+
+Dirrul had no idea which of the mob had given it to him and he dared
+not glance at it. But he managed to hide the paper in the band of his
+tunic.
+
+Hour by hour the throng filed past, endless and meaningless. It was an
+agony for Dirrul. For the first time he looked into the face of his
+dream and saw the reality of Vinin--order, discipline, efficiency--and
+utter blankness. Unhappily he recalled one of Dr. Kramer's lectures.
+
+"... Defiance of convention, confusion, frustration, stubbornness--yes
+and a touch of the neurotic too--these goad the individual into
+solving problems. And problem solving is progress. An orderly society
+that asks no questions of itself, a society that has no doubts, is a
+dying society...."
+
+Dirrul understood the professor at last. He looked squarely at the
+fact of what he was, a traitor to his own people, on the verge of
+betraying them. He had been wonderfully deluded by his own
+self-deception.
+
+But the job wasn't quite finished. The Vininese would not have gone to
+take Glenna from the hospital if they had understood his teleray. Let
+them splurge on their reception! He was unimpressed. When the time
+came for questions to be answered he would conveniently forget why he
+had been sent to Vinin. Nothing they could do would drag it out of
+him.
+
+The crowd thinned and Dirrul was taken inside the building, where his
+Vininese host awaited him. Sighing deeply the Vininese stood up.
+"These public displays do take so much of our time," he said, "but
+it's over now." This last seemed to amuse him and he repeated it
+softly before adding, "The Chief's ready to see you."
+
+Remembering the note and the flimsy possibility that it might suggest
+a way out, Dirrul answered quickly, "But, sir, I really ought to clean
+up first."
+
+"You Agronians have such weird notions of propriety!"
+
+"I would feel more presentable to your Chief if--if I could have a
+bath. Perhaps I might even borrow a change of clothing."
+
+The Vininese fingered his chin thoughtfully. "It might be more
+amusing. Yes, the Chief can wait a few minutes longer for you to
+satisfy your vanity."
+
+He summoned a blank-faced liveried servant and asked for a clean
+worker's suit for Dirrul. Then he took Dirrul to the wall tube and
+they shot noiselessly to an upper floor. As he left Dirrul at the
+door of a luxurious suite, the Vininese said, "When you change your
+clothes, my friend, don't forget to take the disk out of your tunic.
+The Chief will want it when you see him."
+
+When he was sure he was alone Dirrul spread open the note. It was a
+crude drawing of a hearing aid and beneath it a cryptic sentence
+written in Agronian,
+
+     _I lost mine and so has Glenna now._
+
+The signature was unmistakably Hurd's but the note made no sense.
+Hurd's hearing was as sound as Dirrul's. He had never used a
+mechanical device--how could he have lost it then? _So has
+Glenna_--that must be the key. Hurd somehow knew about the vagabond
+raiding party that had rescued Glenna from the mental hospital. He
+must have escaped from the Vininese earlier himself. He was probably
+hiding somewhere in the capital.
+
+Working on this hypothesis Dirrul made a guess that the thing Hurd had
+lost was his illusion about the Vininese system. The hearing aid
+symbolized what Hurd had been told about it, as opposed to the reality
+which he saw with his own eyes.
+
+But such an interpretation didn't ring entirely true. It was too
+involved for an idea which could have been better expressed in four
+words--_I know the truth_. Tossing the note aside Dirrul turned on the
+water in the shower room and thoughtfully disrobed.
+
+As he threw his tunic aside a violent paralyzing terror seized his
+mind, making his head sing with a screeching vibration. Blindly he
+snatched up the tunic in order to stuff the cloth into his mouth so he
+would not cry out. But as soon as he pressed it against his skin his
+terror vanished, like a siren suddenly stilled.
+
+The pattern of the real truth fell into place then. Now he understood
+the power of Vinin. Experimentally he took Sorgel's disk out of his
+tunic and laid it on a table. As soon as he did so the blinding
+nameless horror flamed up. When he held the disk again the exhausting
+emotion vanished.
+
+Looking back Dirrul saw an abundance of evidence that might have given
+him a clue, had he not spent so much mental effort bolstering his
+illusion of Vinin. There was the circumstance of his own unrelenting
+terror when he was without the disk in the ravine--the painful sight
+of his captors puncturing the prisoners' eardrums--the soundless talk
+of the vagabonds, like the lip-reading of the deaf--the bleak
+orderliness of the cheering mobs--and, most obvious of all, the
+strange transmitters atop the well-guarded stone block-buildings.
+
+It was all there, even to the final cruelty to the children. What was
+it the Vininese had said? "The adjustment is sometimes very severe but
+on the whole the casualties are light." And the very young, before
+they were taken from their parents, didn't need disks because they
+were in what the Vininese had called "the instinct period."
+
+Dirrul knew what Hurd's drawing meant. Somehow Hurd had lost his
+hearing, perhaps as a result of the beating the police had given him
+on Agron. In any case only the deaf could think rationally on Vinin.
+Hurd was telling Dirrul to shatter his own sense of hearing if he
+still had the will to think and act for himself. The nightmare Dirrul
+had witnessed in the ravine was not torture but the bravery of
+desperate men attempting to rescue rational minds.
+
+The Rational Potential--the gift of the legendary Earthmen! Like the
+processes of thought itself it could never be wiped out by argument or
+reason once it was understood. The Earthmen had wasted centuries
+trying to undo their own evolved rationality before they realized it
+could not be done. Now, on a higher level in another plane, the
+Vininese were struggling to submerge the Earthmen's second achievement
+of the Rational Potential.
+
+It was done by their transmitters. A wave of some sort--probably
+subsonic or supersonic--continuously filled the Vininese atmosphere.
+The Vininese who wore the disks were protected against it. The others
+succumbed if they retained their hearing. As Dirrul himself had
+discovered in the ravine, when he did not consciously think the terror
+diminished.
+
+All Vininese children were given a basic education. It built up their
+automatic responses, established correct stimulus-response behavior
+patterns. Then, for the masses, the protective disks were eliminated
+and the screeching fear pounded at them until the processes of
+creative thinking were destroyed, leaving a backlog of malleable and
+obedient habit patterns. The problem solving was done for them by
+their masters.
+
+The Vininese Confederacy--half the galaxy--was peopled by billions
+upon billions of robot races, ruled by a handful of men with absolute
+power. To that Dirrul would have betrayed his planet! To slavery and
+to the destruction of the Rational Potential, all for the slippery
+dream of orderliness and efficiency which masqueraded as progress.
+
+He could save Agron today--but for how long? Sorgel would bewitch
+countless other discontented Agronian fools. The Movement would try
+again and one day the Vininese space fleet would penetrate the
+Agronian Nuclear Beams. Dirrul had to escape. He had to go home and
+tell the truth about Vinin.
+
+And it was impossible. He was completely trapped with no visible way
+out for himself.
+
+
+VIII
+
+Dirrul stood in front of the metal-surfaced reflector, fingering the
+cap of his ear. To survive as a thinking being he must deafen himself.
+Yet he hesitated. Self-inflicted violence was the negation of the
+Rational Potential.
+
+Then, slowly, he developed a new idea. He could use the power of
+Vinin, to save Agron if not himself!
+
+There came a knock on his door. Dirrul drew on his tunic as a stranger
+entered the room.
+
+"The Chief is impatient--you must come at once."
+
+Durril was led through a metal-roofed tunnel into a wide sunny
+transparent-walled room at the top of the building. The door closed
+behind him. He was alone with a tall smooth-faced man, exotically
+costumed in a tight black suit crusted with white jewels and framed by
+a white cloak thrown loosely around his shoulders. He sat back of a
+tremendous desk--behind his chair was a tilted panel of dials, levers
+and tiny glowing lights, running the length of the room under the
+ceiling-high window.
+
+"It is always a pleasure to welcome a hero of the Vininese
+Confederacy," the Chief said without getting up. His tone was slow,
+tired, emotionless. His eyes were without expression. "May I ask your
+name?"
+
+"Dirrul--Edward Dirrul."
+
+"And you come from Agron with a message from our agent," he said,
+speaking Agronian. "So much we got from your teleray. In fifty
+days--actually forty-nine from now, by your time--your local Movement
+will have use for a Vininese space-fleet. I have already dispatched
+Sub-units B and C. Now, if you will give me the details of your Plan I
+can code-wave them to my commander."
+
+"There's been a mistake, sir. What I really meant when I sent the
+message was--"
+
+"So you've discovered the truth." The Chief's hand darted toward a
+cubicle of his desk and he held a metal-barreled weapon aimed steadily
+at Dirrul. "These things are always so tedious. Give me your disk."
+
+"Of course," Dirrul agreed readily but as he felt in his pocket the
+Chief gestured negatively with his weapon.
+
+"No, keep it." After a pause he added, "You're certain that you know,
+Dirrul?"
+
+"I've seen the transmitters."
+
+"Then why aren't you afraid? Why do you consent so readily? The others
+are always terrified--they'll confess to anything if I promise to let
+them keep the disks. Have you ever heard the sound, Dirrul? Do you
+really know what it's like?"
+
+"You want information from me. You have no chance of getting it if you
+deprive me of the ability to think."
+
+"Granted. And otherwise?"
+
+"You won't get it either."
+
+The Chief sighed wearily. "You are simply trading one romantic
+illusion for another. You have somehow convinced yourself that one
+man--one lone Agronian--can hold out against us. Let me tell you a
+little about our system, Dirrul, so you'll understand how futile it is
+to waste your time and mine like this." Not a trace of feeling came
+into his voice. He sounded slightly bored, reciting a matter-of-fact
+chronology of statistics.
+
+"As you have guessed we create our leader-class on each of our planets
+by protecting them from the sound waves with the disks. If scattered
+groups among the general public should ever gain immunity--as far as
+we know only idiots and the deaf can do that--they could never carry
+out a successful revolt. The only way would be for the transmitter
+stations to be silenced.
+
+"However, every unit operates independently on its own power. We have
+thousands of them on every planet. All but one could be destroyed, and
+that one transmitter would still be enough to control the planet. You
+begin to see, I think, that any kind of resistance is foolish. In time
+you can be made to do as I ask. Unfortunately, we have no time to
+spare.
+
+"Perhaps you're thinking that outsiders--tourists, let's say--could
+come here and overthrow us. All rational beings in the galaxy are
+subject to the same physical laws. They still must hear and if they do
+they're powerless.
+
+"Besides, our secret is remarkably well-kept. The tourists and
+merchants come to our planet in droves. They notice nothing--because
+of the amusing idiosyncrasy of Vininese customs men, who are required
+to stamp the hand of each visitor with an identification mark. The
+coloring material is atomically constituted to act as a temporary disk
+while the tourist is among us. He notices nothing amiss. He sees what
+we want him to see--he goes home favorably impressed--and by that time
+the mark has worn away. You get the general picture, Dirrul? Nothing
+can ever defeat us."
+
+"Nothing but yourselves."
+
+"Romantic nonsense! Let me show you what I can do, Dirrul, even when
+you wear a disk. I think you'll bargain then." The Chief turned a
+little to face the panel behind his desk, feeling over the dials while
+he kept Dirrul framed in his gunsight.
+
+"The young man you went to this morning for help is a sadist. The
+reception was his idea--so was your bath. He likes to have our
+traitors--and you are a traitor, of course, to your own people--he
+likes to have them discover the truth before we take their disks away.
+It's an exquisite torture but in your case annoying, since it puts you
+in a position to bargain. Now it occurs to me that your host should be
+disciplined for his bungling."
+
+The Chief pointed to the surface of his desk. "Watch the screen,
+Dirrul." An opaque rectangle glowed with light, slowly came into
+focus, and revealed a large mirrored lounge, where a number of
+official Vininese stood talking and drinking. The Chief twisted a
+dial, pulled a lever and one of the Vininese collapsed, writhing on
+the glassy floor in violent agony.
+
+The screen went blank.
+
+"I have not only decontrolled your friend's disk," the Chief explained
+blandly, "but I have doubled his receptability to sound. I can
+continue the treatment until he goes mad--or I can snap it off and let
+it serve as a warning.
+
+"From this panel here I control every disk-wearer on Vinin--including
+yourself, Dirrul. You understand, I think, that there can never be
+any disloyalty among our leaders--they're consciously aware of the
+consequences. And revolt in the ranks is physically impossible. We're
+safe, you see, even from ourselves."
+
+Once again there was a slight trace of emotion in the weary voice. "No
+doubt you also gather, Dirrul, who is the real ruler of Vinin. There
+are a hundred thousand of us, more or less, scattered throughout the
+Confederacy. All right--tell me what I need to know. If your Plan
+succeeds I'll deputize you for Agron when we annex it."
+
+Suddenly Dirrul saw the answer. His heart leaped with joy and it was
+difficult to keep the feeling out of his voice when he said, "You have
+been talking to me in my own tongue." Carefully he inched toward the
+desk. "And understanding me."
+
+"Entirely beside the point."
+
+"Not entirely. You hear what I say--which means that you must wear a
+disk too."
+
+Dirrul sprang across the desk. At the same time the Chief raised his
+weapon and fired. Flame seared Dirrul's cheek. A red mist welled
+before him and he reeled back against the control panel as the Chief
+fired again. The second explosion was so close it seemed to be within
+his own mind.
+
+The Chief's hand clawed at Dirrul's tunic, ripping the disk away from
+him. Recoiling in anticipation of the dread shock wave, Dirrul hurled
+himself at the Chief.
+
+But instead of the screaming terror he felt nothing. An inexplicable
+force seemed to close in on him. His head spun dizzily but his mind
+still functioned. He smashed his fist into the face of the Chief and
+the body sagged to the floor.
+
+Dirrul stood bewildered, looking at his hand. A mass of flesh-like
+material, torn from the Chief's face, clung to his knuckles. Dirrul
+bent over the man and touched his skin. It crumbled under pressure and
+the lifelike purple coloring ran. Dirrul peeled the putty away until
+he could make out the shape of the pale wrinkled very aged face
+beneath.
+
+Sickened he moved away--for he had seen the ruler of Vinin.
+
+
+IX
+
+Dirrul backed into the desk, knocking a fragile statuette to the
+floor. When it lay shattered at his feet he understood why he could
+still plan and reason, even though the disk was gone. The Chief's
+shot, fired so close to his head, had deafened him either temporarily
+or permanently.
+
+Dirrul ran to the control panel and twisted dials frantically, pulling
+every lever he could find. He had no idea what he was doing and it
+didn't matter so long as something happened. If he could decontrol
+even half the disks on Vinin it would create enough confusion to cover
+his own escape.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Twenty-five days later the Space-dragon shot up from the space-field
+which was hidden among the stony Vininese mountain ravines. As it cut
+through the stratosphere Dirrul's bonds were released. He felt
+exhausted and empty. His last memory was of talking to Hurd on the
+mountain trail. Beyond that was a blank. He looked up at Glenna, as
+beautiful as ever but somehow more mature.
+
+"You're all right now, Eddie?" she asked in a loud voice that betrayed
+her deafness.
+
+"I think so. Where are you taking me?"
+
+She touched her ears, still crudely bandaged. "You must say everything
+very slowly, Eddie. I haven't yet learned to read lips as well as Hurd
+does."
+
+"Where are we going?"
+
+"Back to Agron."
+
+"We have no right, Glenna--we're traitors!"
+
+"We have a duty to tell them the truth. What they do with us doesn't
+matter."
+
+He shook his head weakly, still lost in his stupor. "Tell me what
+happened, Glenna--I can't remember anything."
+
+"You got out of the government building and stole a Space-dragon. Then
+you came looking for us. Just after you met Hurd your hearing began to
+come back and of course you lost control of yourself. Hurd wanted to
+break your eardrums but I wouldn't let him.
+
+"Since we had a space-ship at last we could get away from Vinin and I
+knew you'd be all right when we did. But it took us a month to steal
+enough fuel. Something you did in the government building paralyzed a
+lot of the leaders for a while but by the time we got around to
+looking for fuel the others had restored order again."
+
+The door of the control room slid open and Hurd dropped down on the
+bunk beside Dirrul. "Feeling better?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"I guess so. The whole picture's beginning to come back."
+
+Hurd sighed with relief and his face relaxed.
+
+Dirrul asked slowly, "How did you get away from them, Hurd?"
+
+"I lost my hearing in the beating Sorgel gave me on Agron."
+
+"_Sorgel!_" Dirrul repeated unbelievingly. It was the last illusion to
+go and for that reason the most painful. "Then it wasn't the Agronian
+police--"
+
+"Of course it was Sorgel," Glenna said quietly. "He had to get rid of
+us because we wouldn't go along with him on the idea of a Vininese
+invasion. I tried so hard to tell you, Eddie, but I couldn't because
+of the drugs they gave us."
+
+"The Vininese never knew I was deaf," Hurd went on. "It's easy enough
+to escape from a work camp when you can think for yourself. The
+Vininese resistance found me in the hills and I've been working with
+them ever since. A pitiful band of the deaf, fighting insurmountable
+odds to win back the human dignity of half the galaxy! But they won't
+turn tail and run and their numbers grow every time they raid a work
+camp."
+
+"Were you with the men who kidnapped Glenna?"
+
+"We were all out that night, trying to keep watch on the camps near
+the capital. We didn't know which one Glenna was in but I was sure the
+Vininese would try to reach her after they got your teleray message.
+We counted on the Vininese leading us to her and we knew we had to
+kidnap her first if we were to keep them from learning about the Plan
+on Agron.
+
+"Unfortunately I wasn't with the group that picked you up, Eddie. They
+thought they had taken a Vininese leader and it seemed such a suitable
+punishment to take your disk away and let you hear the sound for a
+while. Later--after you'd escaped--when the others described your
+Air-Command uniform I took a chance and sent my note."
+
+He helped Dirrul to his feet. "You'll have to take over from here on
+in, Eddie. You said you knew how to pilot this thing. I figured out a
+take-off but that's as far as I can go."
+
+"Sorgel's pilot showed me once," he said. "What I don't remember I'll
+improvise. He said a Space-dragon could make the run in thirty days.
+This baby's got to do it in less than twenty-five if we're going to
+beat the Vininese fleet to Agron."
+
+"You didn't tell them the Plan, did you, Eddie?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The Vininese won't land without instructions."
+
+"Sorgel may get up enough courage to send a teleray code. We can't
+take any chances either."
+
+Dirrul drove himself without rest. He cut every corner he knew, used
+every trick of navigational skill he had ever learned. Nonetheless it
+was twenty-eight days before the little ship hung in the air over the
+Agronian capital.
+
+His heart sank. On the space-field, in neat ranks, the Vininese
+space-fleet was drawn up in proud review. The planet had fallen!
+Dirrul made his decision instinctively.
+
+The Space-dragon wheeled and swept low over the field, its vicious
+guns blazing. The yellow clouds of destruction swept up toward the
+sky--the little ship was caught in the blazing flame. The
+interplanetary freight sheds loomed ahead. And the world exploded,
+falling apart into a soothing painless silence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dirrul opened his eyes and looked at the neutral blue of a hospital
+ceiling. Gradually he became conscious of Dr. Kramer, seated by the
+bed.
+
+"Dr. Kramer!" Dirrul whispered. "Then everything's all right."
+
+"If by everything you mean your companions, yes. There's even a chance
+we can restore the girl's hearing."
+
+"And the Vininese?"
+
+"Defeated."
+
+"Dr. Kramer, we've got to destroy the Confederacy! I saw their
+transmitters--I know how their system works."
+
+"Hush, Edward--I promised not to excite you. We know about it."
+
+"Then how could you have been foolish enough to let them land?"
+
+"It seemed a pity not to give a few of their people another chance.
+It's working out quite nicely too."
+
+"I don't follow you, Dr. Kramer."
+
+"Long ago we became interested when tourists told us about the curious
+block-buildings on Vinin. Our physics boys worked out an ingenious
+device for analyzing their atmosphere. It was a little machine
+concealed in the lining of an ordinary air-freight crate, as I recall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"A machine is quite objective, Edward--and Customs men don't stamp
+freight crates with the negative adaptors. When we learned that a
+Vininese fleet was going to land here we simply issued insulating
+helmets to all our people and let them come. As soon as we destroyed
+their portable transmitters the Vininese army proved quite adaptable
+to a new environment."
+
+"Then--I did nothing to help when I destroyed their fleet?"
+
+"Unfortunately you wounded two of our mechanics."
+
+"I'm a traitor, Dr. Kramer. Even when I try I can't redeem myself!"
+
+"Only on Vinin can you betray an external absolute, Edward. To an
+Agronian all objective concepts are relative to the subjective
+interpretations made by each individual. You can only be a traitor to
+yourself."
+
+"The words are pleasant to say to a sick man but the fact remains--I
+would have betrayed Agron."
+
+"But you didn't. Why not?"
+
+"When I saw what their efficiency really meant--"
+
+"You changed your mind before you knew about the transmitters?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you're libeling yourself. Don't trap yourself in another
+self-delusion, Edward. All that's happened is that you've grown up."
+
+Dirrul said slowly, feeling for words that would express the idea as
+he felt it, "When I was in the center of the galaxy, looking out on
+space, I almost grasped a new concept but I lost it when the Agronian
+patrol attacked me. It's coming back.
+
+"Time and space seem to be one and the same. Neither exists as an
+objective reality. There is no past and no future--all of it occurs
+eternally in the instant of my own being. I am everything and
+nothing--infinity and a speck lost in space."
+
+"Thus you discover the Rational Potential," Dr. Kramer smiled. "I
+think you're ready for the space-pilot promotional, Edward." After a
+pause Dr. Kramer inquired, "Did you see the Chief of Vinin, Edward?"
+
+"Then you know about that too?"
+
+"I've guessed--it seems likely."
+
+"I scraped off the putty and the face color. Beneath it he was an
+Earthman. A hundred thousand of them rule the Confederacy."
+
+"All time and space, forever occurring for each of us in the instant
+of now! Yes, he would be an Earthman, Edward--quite logically. Both
+good and evil begin with the same source. Both have the same Rational
+Potential. The act of being has always been the same struggle of
+constant forces, between the absolute and the relative. The time never
+changes nor the event but merely the passing illusion of place."
+
+Shaking his head the chubby professor departed. Dirrul closed his
+eyes, at peace with himself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Instant of Now, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Instant of Now, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Instant of Now
+
+Author: Irving E. Cox, Jr.
+
+Release Date: March 15, 2010 [EBook #31651]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSTANT OF NOW ***
+
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+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<p class="center">This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe Aug-Sept 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="585" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="sidenote"><i>One of the most intriguing of all science fiction patterns
+is that of the galactic sweep&mdash;the story which takes for granted human
+travel between stars at speeds far faster than the speed of light. In
+its most successful form, such a story combines cosmic action with a
+wholly human plot. In this case Mr. Cox&mdash;but read it yourself.</i></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>the instant of now</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><i>by ... Irving E. Cox, Jr.</i></h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Revolution is not necessarily a noble thing. Unless shrewdly
+directed, its best elements may fall victim to its basest
+impulses.</p></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Eddie Dirrul had destroyed the message seconds after reading it. Yet,
+as he left the pneumotube from the University, he felt as if it were
+burning a hole in his pocket. It had come to him from Paul Sorgel, the
+new top-agent from the Planet Vinin. It had been written in High
+Vininese.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the alien language had slowed Eddie's reaction to its
+contents, as had the shocking nature of its words. It had read&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Need your help. Glenna and Hurd in brush with Secret
+Police&mdash;both hurt. Come at once.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Luckily old Dr. Kramer had asked no awkward questions when Eddie
+excused himself from the balance of the lecture. If the kindly
+bumbling professor had been inquisitive, Eddie had no idea how he
+would have answered. Glenna was his fianc&eacute;e, Hurd his best friend&mdash;and
+their disaster meant disaster for the underground movement that had
+become the guiding purpose of his entire life.</p>
+
+<p>The night was still young when he emerged from the pneumotube and the
+slanting ramp-lines of windows in the massive unit-blocks of the
+Workers' Suburb rose about him within the darkness of the structural
+frames that encased them.</p>
+
+<p>Parks, recreation centers and gaudy amusement halls were aswirl with
+the usual evening crowds. With a sort of angry heedlessness Eddie
+forced his way among tall perpetually-youthful men in bright leisure
+clothing&mdash;and consciously alluring women clad in filmy garments as
+teasingly transparent as mist.</p>
+
+<p><i>Glenna hurt&mdash;and Hurd!</i> Seriously, of course, or Paul Sorgel would
+never have risked a hand-message. With quiet desperation he pushed
+through the crowds&mdash;in his trim grey Air-command uniform he was one
+with them, a nonentity like themselves.</p>
+
+<p>He knew where to find the three he sought. Beyond the outdoor courts,
+where his fellow-Agronians amused themselves with a variety of
+racquet-games, lay a tiny park, wherein a state of wild disorder was
+carefuly maintained in imitation of nature.</p>
+
+<p>Few were attracted by its rugged growth, save in very warm weather,
+when hardy souls ventured within its borders to relax in artificial
+breezes created by silent concealed fans. In its center stood a small
+stone building that housed the maintenance machinery. It was deserted,
+except for once each year when the city engineering crews came to
+check the machines and to make minor repairs. There the Libero-Freedom
+Movement held its meetings, in the shadow of the whirring wheels.</p>
+
+<p>Sorgel came out of the shadows as Dirrul pushed through the thicket of
+brush that surrounded the stone building. In a hushed whisper he
+asked, "That you, Eddie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;where are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Inside. I gave them a hypo&mdash;they're both under now. It makes it
+easier."</p>
+
+<p>"How did it happen, Paul?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was to meet Glenna and Hurd at her apartment, to talk over the
+details of the Plan. The police were there ahead of me but I broke up
+the party before they could finish the job. Since they've got to do
+this sort of thing unofficially, to be able to deny it later if any
+questions are asked, I scared them off easily enough. I brought Glenna
+and Hurd here in my Unicyl but I'll need your help to get them out."</p>
+
+<p>"This is the second time it's happened, Paul!" said Eddie. "And the
+Plan&mdash;we'll have to organize all over again. As soon as our people
+hear about this most of them will run like scared rabbits."</p>
+
+<p>"Not if they don't know, Eddie. That's where you come in. We've got to
+get Glenna and Hurd away from Agron. If there's no evidence of a crime
+there's no reason for an investigation."</p>
+
+<p>"But what can I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Borrow one of the Air-command's surface jets for a while."</p>
+
+<p>Paul Sorgel's plan was simple and efficient. The Air-Command field was
+fenced with electronic paralysis barriers and the entrance was heavily
+guarded. But no watch was kept inside the encampment except for a
+daily inspection of the machines when the guard was changed at dawn.
+Since Dirrul was a Captain of the Space-maintenance Division, 73rd
+Air-Command Wing, he was able to enter the area at any time without
+question. Among the scheduled night training flights for new cadets,
+the departure of one more surface jet would pass unobserved.</p>
+
+<p>"Come back here for Glenna and Hurd," Sorgel said, "and take them out
+to the South Desert. If there's no hitch you should be back before
+dawn, with time to spare. If not...." Sorgel shrugged. "Eddie, we
+can't build a better universe without taking occasional risks."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly Dirrul's body tensed with fear. In a cold dead voice he asked,
+"Am I to leave them there, without help or medicine, to die of thirst
+and hunger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Many sacrifices are necessary for the good of the Movement."</p>
+
+<p>"But Glenna and Hurd are our leaders!"</p>
+
+<p>"The freedom of the universe means a little more, I think, than the
+temporary safety of two individuals." Sorgel lit a cigarette. In the
+faint pink reflection of the Glo-Wave lighter his face was emptily
+placid, a faint smile twisting the corners of his lips. "Suppose I say
+it's a command, Dirrul&mdash;a Vininese command, calling for Vininese
+discipline."</p>
+
+<p>After a moment Dirrul replied in a choked whisper, "I'll take them,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>Sorgel smiled and the crisp tone of authority edged out of his voice.
+"As a matter of fact, Eddie, I was curious to see what you would do.
+The Vininese Confederacy practises neither cruelty nor deception.
+You'll find one of our Space-dragons hidden in a gorge of the Katskain
+Range. It's the ship I came in a week ago.</p>
+
+<p>"The pilot was instructed to wait fifteen planetary revolutions in the
+event that I might have a report to send back to Headquarters. You
+must learn to trust me, Eddie. From the first, you see, I intended to
+send Glenna and Hurd to Vinin. If they get there in time there's a
+chance our Medical Corps can pull them through. They may even be back
+here with us for the day when we carry out the Plan."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul was in no real danger. Much as it benefited the Movement the
+laxity of Agronian security was one of the chief reasons why Dirrul
+scorned the Planetary Union. The space-wide patrols of the
+Air-Command, the city guards and the electronic paralysis barricades
+created a feeling of internal control&mdash;but it was all a glittering
+sham. If it were not for the Nuclear Beams the whole system would long
+since have crumbled under the first pressure from outside.</p>
+
+<p>With no difficulty he picked up Glenna and Hurd and took them to the
+South Desert, where he put them aboard the sleek Vininese space-ship.
+It was one of the new Dragon design&mdash;compact, efficient, faster than
+anything built by the Planetary Union, protected by sixteen circular
+batteries and yet small enough to be handled by one man.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul had seen only one other Vininese Space-dragon and that from a
+distance at the Agronian commercial airport, when the last Vininese
+ambassador arrived. Technically there was no reason why Paul Sorgel
+could not have landed there as well, except that the Customs
+questionnaire might have proved embarrassing.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty years earlier, when Dirrul was still a schoolboy, the Galactic
+War had ended. Since that time relations between the Planetary Union
+and the Vininese Confederacy had steadily improved&mdash;at least in
+appearance. Undoubtedly there were commercial interests on both sides
+anxious to maintain peace and in recent years the quantity of goods in
+trade had grown enormously. But it was a truce, not a peace&mdash;a
+compromise, rather than a victory&mdash;forced on the galaxy when the
+scientists of the Planetary Union discovered the Nuclear Beams.</p>
+
+<p>Pain shot through Dirrul's mind as he carried Glenna into the
+pressurized chamber under the control room. She and Hurd were still
+unconscious but Glenna turned in his arms and her eyes fluttered open.
+She looked at him and screamed in terrible agony before the pilot of
+the Space-dragon plunged a hypodermic sedative into her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"It is better," he said to Dirrul in throaty Vininese. "So beautiful a
+one should not feel the pain." Carefully he fastened the needlepoint
+of a wall tube into Glenna's vein and another into Hurd's.</p>
+
+<p>"Synthetic blood feeding," he said with a smile. "It will keep them
+alive, perhaps even permitting minor wounds to heal, until I deliver
+them to the authorities on Vinin. You see, sir, my little ship is
+well-equipped." He slammed the round door of the hospital room shut
+and led Dirrul to the control blister.</p>
+
+<p>"How long will it be, this trip to Vinin?" Dirrul asked, speaking very
+slowly in classical Vininese. Like everyone in the Movement he had
+studied the language of Vinin as a sort of courtesy and duty but he
+had no illusion about his small ability to handle it.</p>
+
+<p>"In terms of your time," the pilot said, "about thirty days."</p>
+
+<p>"Only thirty? The Planetary Union hasn't a ship that could make it
+under sixty!"</p>
+
+<p>"But this is a Space-dragon." The words were self-explanatory.</p>
+
+<p>Proudly the pilot showed Dirrul the controls, as functional and as
+uncomplex as the cool clean lines of the ship herself. The design was
+so logical, so basically simple, that within a few minutes Dirrul
+understood enough of the mechanism to have driven the ship himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Your scientists could do as well," the pilot suggested, "if they
+wished."</p>
+
+<p>"Not mine," Dirrul said.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon&mdash;the scientists of the Planetary Union. On Vinin we create for
+the future, for the progress of the Confederacy. We have no patience
+with petty argument, tedious experimentation or the pointless
+splitting of hairs that seems to occupy so much of your time here. For
+us a scientist is a producer, like everyone else. If he fails to do
+his job we replace him."</p>
+
+<p>Pleased with the comparison the pilot chuckled over his dials as he
+turned on the power. Above the roar he said to Dirrul, "We must talk
+again one day, sir. If you ever have the good fortune to come to Vinin
+be sure to look me up."</p>
+
+
+<h2>II</h2>
+
+<p>As the Vininese ship shot smoothly out into the night sky, Dirrul's
+surface jet slashed back toward the Agronian capital. A synthetic
+tension, which he deliberately fed with nightmare improbabilities,
+kept him reasonably alert until he had safely returned the jet to its
+place in the compound. Then weariness engulfed him. Groggily he
+staggered to the pneumotube and within five minutes he was asleep in
+the small two-room worker's apartment where he lived.</p>
+
+<p>The insistent <i>ping</i> of the door visiscope woke him. Dirrul glanced at
+his wall clock and saw that it was still early morning. He had slept
+less than three hours. Swearing angrily he turned down the visiarm.
+Dr. Kramer's serene aging white-bearded face was mirrored on the
+grey-tinted screen.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Edward," Kramer said with excessive cheerfulness. "For
+a moment I was afraid I had missed you. I've brought a transcription
+of the lecture you missed yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul swung out of bed and pushed the entry release. Soundlessly the
+thin metal door slid into the wall and the little professor bounced
+into the room. The door shot back into place.</p>
+
+<p>"But you're not dressed!" the professor exclaimed without the
+slightest regret. "I always supposed you Air-Command men had to report
+for work at eight."</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday I was out on emergency call," Dirrul said dully. "For
+twelve hours, so I've the morning off. I had planned to pound the
+pillow until&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good! We can talk, then. I don't have a class until ten and I always
+like to make the personal acquaintance of my students." Dr. Kramer
+made himself comfortable in Dirrul's Cloud-foam lounge, clasping his
+small, white hands over the little bulge of his belly. "Nice apartment
+you have here, Edward&mdash;excellent taste in furnishing."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mind if I shave and dress and have a bite of breakfast, Dr.
+Kramer?" Dirrul's sarcasm was quite lost on the professor.</p>
+
+<p>"Do, by all means," Kramer said. "And you might order a pot of coffee
+for me."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul touched a button and the bed rolled up into the wall&mdash;another
+and the gleaming metal shower-room slid open. He stripped and bathed,
+setting the aquadial so that his body was pounded by a sharp rain of
+icy water. When he snapped it off the massage arms shot out, rubbing
+him dry with soft, plastic puffs. He sprayed the newly patented
+No-Beard Mist on his face and, after waiting the required three
+seconds, wiped it off with a disposable fiber towel. The skin was
+pink and clean, refreshingly invigorated. When he took a fresh uniform
+out of the wall-press and put it on he felt very much himself again,
+scarcely annoyed by his lack of sleep.</p>
+
+<p>He pushed the button and the bathroom rolled out of sight. The whole
+process had taken less than five minutes.</p>
+
+<p>At his panel-control Dirrul dialed a sizable breakfast for himself and
+coffee for the professor. Before he could draw up chairs the
+grey-topped table had rolled from its wall slot, the steaming food
+containers fixed to it.</p>
+
+<p>"The marvels of invention!" Dr. Kramer said. "When I was young we had
+nothing like this. Many times, Edward, I had to prepare my own
+meals&mdash;and mighty skimpy ones they were too, some of them. A young
+teacher in those days wasn't paid very much."</p>
+
+<p>"You survived, Dr. Kramer," Dirrul reminded him dryly. "A little work
+now and then wouldn't hurt us, either."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the old argument, Edward. How we frothed and stewed over it
+when this new system was in its infancy! That was before your time, of
+course." Kramer poured a cup of coffee and after a thoughtful
+hesitation quietly took a slice of toast from Dirrul's platter. "They
+said we'd create a race of helpless children&mdash;defenseless lazy
+softies. They said if the individual wasn't forced to fight for his
+own survival, for the small comforts of life, he would die of boredom,
+drown initiative in luxury."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kramer smiled&mdash;and took another slice of toast. "Like so many of
+the terrifying predictions of the Cassandras none of it came to pass.
+Today we're stronger and more vigorous than ever. Today we have more
+new inventions, more new discoveries, more fine philosophical insight
+than ever before in our entire history.</p>
+
+<p>"Actually what we did was save time on the trivial routines so we
+could spend our work-potential where it mattered. After all, what was
+gained by a social system that forced me to spend so much of my energy
+feeding and housing and clothing myself? Weigh the loss against the
+greater contribution I might have made if I had spent the same time in
+research."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, Dr. Kramer&mdash;you could have given us the Cloud-foam lounge a
+generation earlier," Dirrul said bitterly, "or perhaps the Safe-sweet
+candy."</p>
+
+<p>Again his sarcasm lost its savor, for the professor simply beamed and
+said, "Possibly, if that had been my field of interest. As it happens
+I'm a psychologist specializing in emotive linguistics&mdash;the
+symbologies for conveying meanings." The professor smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Our present vigor and strength, no doubt, is reflected in the sort of
+thing we do with all this extra time our gadgets give us&mdash;the
+scholarly research in the Arena or the Phonoview."</p>
+
+<p>"You're being very uncritical, Edward. Under any social form a great
+majority of the people would spend everything on personal pleasures.
+Why not? Each generation produces only a few leaders&mdash;we simply
+recognize that fact and adjust to it."</p>
+
+<p>"But without the incentive of personal gain, Dr. Kramer...."</p>
+
+<p>The professor laughed uproariously. "Incentive! You amaze me, Edward.
+I haven't heard the word used in just that context since I was a boy.
+You're a throwback&mdash;an anachronism. You sound like one of the elderly
+prophets of doom. I thought the breed had died out generations ago."
+The professor laughed again. "So our system creates no incentives.
+Tell me, Edward, why are you spending your Work-Equivs to take my
+night course?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, when I've passed enough university hours I can take the
+promotional test and become a full-fledged space-pilot."</p>
+
+<p>"And still you say there's no incentive?"</p>
+
+<p>"For myself, yes&mdash;but all of us ought to have the same kind of drive,"
+said Dirrul.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a condition never existed, Edward. Always there have been a few
+to make the inventions and the discoveries, a few to create the new
+dreams and frame the new ideas. Our people are no different. Incentive
+comes from within the individual&mdash;it cannot be imposed from the
+outside.</p>
+
+<p>"The poorest sort of incentive, therefore, is economic need. Our
+system provides all our people with the basic necessities for everyday
+living. Some few of us are content with these and never want anything
+else. But the great majority work to earn Work-Equivs, which they can
+spend as they please&mdash;on amusement, luxury, education or the races at
+the Arena.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever the goal, it is a personal goal, set by each individual for
+himself. It's the only kind of incentive that makes any sense. Take
+yourself as an example&mdash;you spend your share of Work-Equivs on
+additional education because you want to become a space-pilot. By the
+time you've earned the promotion you'll have lifted yourself to a
+position of leadership.</p>
+
+<p>"As you are well aware the space-pilot is the politician&mdash;statesman is
+a better word&mdash;of the Planetary Union. Through his ingenuity, his
+skill with languages, his psychological understanding of diverse
+racial groups, he holds our planets and peoples together, in one union
+with a common social philosophy. Think how frustrating it would be if
+you could never move toward your goal, Edward, because everything you
+earned had to be spent on trivialities&mdash;food, clothing, a place to
+live."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Eddie doubtfully, "I have an apartment given to me
+but it has to be here in a worker's block. If our system provides for
+us all alike, as you imply, how is it you have accommodations in the
+Scientist's Center? Why should you be set apart? Or the poets and
+writers? Or the space-pilots, for that matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"But there's no difference in the way we live, Edward. In general
+people who do similar work and have similar interests are happier if
+they share the same social environment. The average person, living in
+a worker's block, would feel terribly out of place in a scientist's
+center, just as I would develop terrific frustrations if I had to live
+with the mystics or the religious orders."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul deftly snatched the last piece of toast as the professor
+reached for it. "I'll dial some for you if you like," he offered.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, Edward! I'm dieting, you see, and I like to think&mdash;well, as
+I've told you so often in class, we all practise self-deception of a
+sort. Usually it's harmless&mdash;and almost always we symbolize it in
+words. For me the symbol is diet.</p>
+
+<p>"I set up a specialized definition and convince myself that I am
+dieting if I never directly order fattening food. That gives me an
+escape hatch. If food is offered to me or if it happens to&mdash;ah&mdash;to
+fall into my hands, I can take it and still keep a clear conscience."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you practise more self-deception than you know, Dr. Kramer,"
+said Eddie. "For instance, all your fine words about the strength and
+vitality of our new system&mdash;when I was a boy we licked the Vininese
+Confederacy. We couldn't do it today."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a matter of opinion. We're at peace now and we'll remain so."</p>
+
+<p>"Only because we have the Nuclear Beams. And look how we've botched
+that mess! Our scientists gave the process to the Vininese in order to
+patch together a peace when we could have destroyed their civilization
+completely."</p>
+
+<p>"And our own too&mdash;with the weight of such a crime on our group
+conscience. There's one thing you still must learn, Edward&mdash;scientific
+progress is made by the sharing of ideas, not the concealment of them.
+We build the future upon the truths of the past and the present. If
+some of those truths are hidden away we create falsely on utterly
+false foundations."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kramer pulled a manila envelope from his pocket and laid it on the
+table, pushing back his chair. "I must go, Edward; these are the notes
+on my lecture. As I told you before, I really came here for something
+else. I wanted to talk to you, to get to understand you better. I
+think I've learned a great deal."</p>
+
+<p>The little professor was no longer smiling and the gentle touch of
+banter was gone from his voice. Dirrul felt a creeping fear rise
+within him. How much had he unconsciously revealed? How many of his
+own beliefs had Dr. Kramer been able to read between the lines?</p>
+
+<p>Knowing them, would he guess Dirrul's connection with the Movement?
+The professor's bland naivet&eacute; could be the mask of a police informer.
+Dirrul shivered, remembering the sudden punishment that had overtaken
+Glenna and Hurd.</p>
+
+<p>At the door Dr. Kramer paused and said, "I'm entertaining two or three
+of the university faculty this evening, Edward. They've read some of
+the papers you have written for my class. I'd like to have you meet
+them. My apartment&mdash;eight-thirty."</p>
+
+<p>It was a command rather than an invitation. Dirrul accepted.</p>
+
+
+<h2>III</h2>
+
+<p>As soon as the professor had gone his fear vanished. What he had said
+to Dr. Kramer gave away no secrets and, in any case, he was crediting
+the professor with a perception he did not have. Ever since first
+joining the Movement, when he was still in school, Dirrul had taken
+such pains to conceal his motives that it would have required a good
+deal more than Dr. Kramer's clumsy prying to reveal them.</p>
+
+<p>He had deliberately patterned his attitudes and habits upon a
+composite average, even to a mild and starry-eyed criticism of the
+system which was more or less expected from the ambitious young men of
+the Air-command.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kramer's ecstatic praise of the system was the typical emotional
+reaction of the older generation. The professor may actually have been
+convinced of the truth of his own fuzzy propaganda. It was that sort
+of blind faith which still held the Planetary Union together.</p>
+
+<p>Before returning to the Air-Command base at noon, Dirrul sought out
+Paul Sorgel and reported that Glenna and Hurd were safely on their way
+to Vinin. Apologetically, he mentioned Dr. Kramer's invitation,
+expecting to elicit Sorgel's scorn. Instead the Vininese agent was
+enthusiastic.</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderful, Eddie!" he said. "Engineer it so they'll ask you back.
+We've never got one of our people in with the older science crowd
+before. Feel them out&mdash;we might pick up some converts. I won't need
+you at the next few meetings of the Movement&mdash;they'll be largely
+reorganizational, you know. I've been reading over Glenna's notes on
+the Plan. With one or two modifications we should be able to carry it
+out."</p>
+
+<p>At eight-thirty that evening Dirrul was admitted to Dr. Kramer's
+apartment. He was neither overwhelmed by the professor's excessive
+courtesy nor impressed by the other guests. They were from the faculty
+of the Advanced Air University, elderly, respected and distinguished,
+names known for a generation everywhere in the Planetary Union.</p>
+
+<p>To them, Edward Dirrul was merely a curiosity, a live specimen mounted
+for analysis. He had criticised their system. They intended to wring
+out the strands of his motivation, classify them, speculate and
+theorize upon them&mdash;and perhaps, ultimately, do the whole thing up as
+a monograph.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul knew why Kramer had selected him for study rather than any of
+the current crop of university students who held similar views. A
+product of the educational philosophy of the Planetary Union, Dirrul
+was thoroughly adjusted and decidedly aware of both his own abilities
+and shortcomings.</p>
+
+<p>He was, first of all, gifted in the use of abstractions and
+generalities. In rare combination with this flair he had superior
+mechanical intelligence and a talent for expressive verbalization. He
+dealt easily in the subtle skills of logic. If he set his mind to it,
+he could erect absolute proofs of diametrically opposed truths and few
+minds could detect the delicately concealed flaws in the reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>On the negative side of the scale was Dirrul's complete lack of
+psycho-biological intelligence, or a sense of scientific semantics.
+Neither to him seemed important. He missed them not at all and
+resented the legal requirements that forced him to take Dr. Kramer's
+course before he could qualify as a space-pilot.</p>
+
+<p>The papers he had written for the professor were beautifully
+constructed patterns of logic, cast in well-turned phrases. They had
+clarified the criticism which others put inarticulately. It was the
+precision of his argument that disturbed Dr. Kramer and his faculty
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul was amused as the distinguished scientists skillfully
+manipulated the conversation to create counter-arguments opposing his.
+It was a game played in abstractions, a technique of which Dirrul was
+an instinctive master. Apparently the scientists found some sort of
+excitement in the game, since on succeeding evenings Dirrul was
+swamped with invitations from other faculty members&mdash;so many, in fact,
+that he had to neglect the serious work of the Movement. When he
+complained to Paul Sorgel, the Vininese agent was delighted.</p>
+
+<p>"We can get along without you for awhile, Eddie," Sorgel said. "You're
+doing something much more important. You have a real in with the
+science crowd, and you've got them on the run because your arguments
+make sense. Every doubt you sow in their minds now will make our work
+just that much easier when the proper time comes."</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally Dirrul had an uneasy feeling that he was making no real
+progress at all, that when he talked to the scientists he was a
+dancing puppet dangling on invisible strings. It seemed impossible
+that the scientists of the Ad-Air University could be so repeatedly
+defeated by his logic. Slowly, however, he reasoned his way to an
+explanation.</p>
+
+<p>The scientists, like the system itself, were in the last wild frenzy
+of a decaying social order. They had lived so long in the atmosphere
+of relative truths, they had so carefully schooled themselves to avoid
+all absolutes, that they were unable to elude the simplest processes
+of logic. Their very efforts to be objective made them too honest to
+reject a conclusion once Dirrul had demonstrated the careful structure
+that seemed to support it.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>A month passed. Dirrul felt divorced from the Movement, existing in
+suspended animation in a cloud of wordy unreality. Then abruptly the
+slow-moving dream ended. Late one night Paul Sorgel slipped into
+Dirrul's apartment and announced in an emotionless whisper, "The
+Plan's ready. You'll have to carry the details to Vinin. We can't use
+the teleray&mdash;the Union monitors might pick up the message and decode
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally our Vininese Headquarters will want to know, Paul," said
+Eddie, "but can't that wait? We'll need every man here when we&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Sorgel interrupted him. "I've made one or two changes in Glenna's
+original plan. It was too impractical. A handful of men can't take
+over half a galaxy."</p>
+
+<p>"Glenna and Hurd weren't after the entire Planetary Union,
+Paul&mdash;that's out of the question. We meant to liberate Agron first.
+The capital is here and for awhile the government would be disrupted.
+When the people on the other planets saw how much better our social
+organization had become, modeled on the Vininese system, they would
+stage their own revolutions just like ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Sorgel laughed scornfully. "And in the meantime, of course, none of
+them would think of attacking you and throwing your people out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if we seized the Nuclear Beam Transmitters," said Dirrul, "no
+space-fleet could come near us then."</p>
+
+<p>"Eddie, you've lived in Agron too long. You're not thinking straight
+when you try to build the Plan around a single weapon."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Paul? It's a perfect defense. In less than thirty seconds
+the Beam Transmitters can charge the entire stratospheric envelope of
+Agron. Nothing can move through it without disintegrating, yet life on
+the surface of the planet would go on quite normally because the
+atmosphere serves as an insulation."</p>
+
+<p>"Technically it's a change in the form of energy, not a
+disintegration," Sorgel reminded him. "The beamed electrons unite with
+the atoms of visible material substances and alter them. I quite
+understand the process, Eddie&mdash;Vinin has the Beam too, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Because the Agronian scientists gave you the specifications!"</p>
+
+<p>"That always has rankled, hasn't it?" said Sorgel.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Dirrul admitted. "If the Vininese scientists had discovered the
+Beam-reaction first they would have conquered the galaxy."</p>
+
+<p>"Conquer is a nasty word, Eddie," Sorgel said softly. "Vinin makes no
+conquests. Let's put it differently and say we would have used the
+Beam to bring peace to the galaxy instead of splitting it in two as it
+is now."</p>
+
+<p>"Glenna's Plan can change all that, at least here on Agron."</p>
+
+<p>"Face the facts, Eddie! A few conscientious people with ideals can't
+take over a planet. The Movement has its crews trained to capture the
+Beam Transmitters. You'll isolate Agron and seize the government
+offices simultaneously. What happens then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our people will rise and join us," said Eddie. "We'll create a new
+government modeled on Vinin's and we'll have young leaders instead of
+murky thinkers like Dr. Kramer."</p>
+
+<p>"That's effective propaganda for speechmaking, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Glenna pounded away at it too, Paul," said Eddie. "It was the most
+telling line in winning our new crop of recruits."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is precisely why the police disposed of her. But it won't work.
+The people won't rise. A mob is lethargic, too willing to keep things
+as they are. Here on Agron you've been coddled too long with luxuries
+and easy living. You have to prod the mob awake with a shock-force, a
+force coming from the outside."</p>
+
+<p>"How, Paul? We haven't enough people in the Movement to put on any
+real show of strength. We can't even get outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you understand the changes I've made in Glenna's Plan. You people
+in the Movement will seize the Beam Transmitters as originally
+planned. Then you'll simply hold them and keep them decommissioned
+long enough for a Vininese space-fleet to land. We'll set up your new
+government for you."</p>
+
+<p>"And the rest of the Planetary Union will go to war!"</p>
+
+<p>"It hardly matters," said Paul. "Once we're here the Beams will
+protect us against counterattack and every planet in the Vininese
+Confederacy has the same defense. One by one we can liberate the
+planets of the Union in the same way. But the timing is vital, of
+course&mdash;that's why you have to go to Vinin."</p>
+
+<p>"I had a vacation leave only three months ago. I can't get tourist
+passage now without&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I've considered that. You'll have to have your own space-ship."</p>
+
+<p>"Now wait a minute, Paul! It's one thing to borrow a surface jet but a
+space-cruiser...!"</p>
+
+<p>"A cruiser, yes&mdash;not an old cargo ship. And you can handle that
+without a crew."</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be done, Paul." Dirrul held his Glo-Wave nervously to the
+end of a cigarette. "Besides, I want to think this through carefully
+before I make up my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"A merchant ship made a crash landing at Barney's emergency field
+yesterday," said Paul. "The damage was slight, but the pilot&mdash;unfortunately
+the pilot is dead." Sorgel smiled enigmatically. "Barney's one of our best
+men. He's been on the lookout for a chance like this for weeks.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll leave tonight. Avoid the regular space lanes. I'm guessing
+you'll be on Vinin in a hundred days at the outside. On the fiftieth
+day after that&mdash;exactly one hundred and fifty days from now&mdash;our
+Vininese space-fleet must make a landing on Agron."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be missed, Paul&mdash;they'll make inquiries."</p>
+
+<p>"And get no satisfactory answers."</p>
+
+<p>Pacing the floor, Dirrul asked tensely, "Does everyone in the Movement
+know about this?"</p>
+
+<p>"The vote was made unanimously yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"One of the others must have a vacation leave coming up. Send him.
+We're not at war with Vinin. He could take one of the regular space
+excursions."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't send a message in writing. It would be picked up by the
+customs police. And you're the only one who can carry it verbally,
+Eddie. You know the whole background because you worked with Glenna
+and Hurd. You've been in the Movement longer than any of the others."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not go yourself, Paul?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can do more for the liberation if I stay here."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I'd been at the meeting yesterday when the vote was taken. I'd
+have liked to discuss it with the others before&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why so many questions, Eddie? Why so many doubts all of a sudden?"
+Sorgel stood and faced Dirrul, holding his shoulders in a grip that
+hurt. "Are you trying to back out? Maybe it wasn't a good thing to let
+you play around with the science boys after all. Be honest with me,
+Eddie. If you're not sure where you stand, say so. There's no room in
+the Movement for traitors."</p>
+
+<p>When Dirrul said nothing Sorgel added in a voice that rang with
+fervor, "You're the only man in the Movement who has had any training
+as a space-pilot. It depends on you now&mdash;everything you've ever
+dreamed of, everything Glenna and Hurd wanted. Can you forget what the
+Agronian police did to Glenna? Is your courage any less than hers?"
+Again Sorgel paused but still Dirrul said nothing. "The future of your
+world depends on you, Eddie&mdash;don't let it down."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go," Dirrul whispered.</p>
+
+<p>As Eddie made up his mind his internal tension relaxed and he was
+filled with a sense of well-being. When he thought about it he
+couldn't understand why he had hesitated&mdash;unless perhaps what Sorgel
+suggested was true&mdash;that his contact with the Ad-Air faculty had
+blunted and nearly perverted his established sense of values.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Dirrul boarded the battered antiquated space cargo
+carrier on the launching rack at Barney's emergency field. At the last
+minute Sorgel pressed a curious disk into his hand. Made of a very
+light metal and suspended from a short chain it was two inches in
+diameter and covered with a complex grid design.</p>
+
+<p>"Put it around your neck before you land, Eddie. Don't remove under
+any circumstances until you report. Give it to the Chief then. He'll
+know I sent you because it's my own identification activator." Sorgel
+clasped Dirrul's hand warmly. "When you land on Vinin take the North
+Field below the capital. It's the HQ operational center. Use Wave-code
+three-seven-three and they'll know you're friendly."</p>
+
+
+<h2>IV</h2>
+
+<p>After the launching space-flight was normally a monotonous routine.
+The course was charted by automatic navigators and the vast pattern of
+interlocking machinery and safety devices was electronically
+controlled by robot relays from the pilot master-panel. The chief
+function of a trained space-pilot, aside from his services as a
+diplomat, was to handle emergency situations for which automatic
+responses could not be built into the machinery.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul, however, could not depend a great deal upon the robot devices.
+He had to avoid the well-traveled and well-charted commercial
+space-lanes. He had to be constantly on the alert for the telltale
+white of a police cruiser. A cargo carrier was the slowest ship in the
+universe&mdash;Dirrul could outrun nothing, not even a playboy's sport
+jalopy, and inspection by the customs police would have been
+disastrous.</p>
+
+<p>He followed a roundabout route, keeping as far from inhabited planets
+as he could, and he made good time. In ninety-five days he had reached
+the mythical border in space, which divided the territory of the
+Planetary Union and the Vininese Confederacy.</p>
+
+<p>He was almost at midpoint in the galaxy. On the glazed screen of his
+space-map the mirrored pinpricks of sun systems glittered like
+microscopic gems scattered over the curve of a gigantic black saucer.
+Dirrul had never been so far from Agron. He felt a stifling sense of
+insignificance.</p>
+
+<p>The meaning of time as he understood it was somehow overwhelmed by the
+immensity of space. Now and yesterday, today and tomorrow, became a
+single unity. Dirrul had a new sense of the past in terms of the
+present. His mind groped for word symbols that he understood which
+could crystalize the shadowy new concept filling his mind.</p>
+
+<p>New understanding seemed to arise from the space-map. Somewhere among
+the glowing points of light was the Place of the Beginning, a single
+planet called Earth. In the far-distant past Earthmen had made
+themselves rational beings. But for centuries thereafter they had made
+no further progress, apparently appalled by the audacity of such
+presumptive evolution. They had fought through a long primitive period
+of violence, erecting system on system and philosophy upon philosophy
+to conceal, destroy and wipe out their own biological machinery.</p>
+
+<p>Then out of a final orgy of death and terror the Earthmen had grasped
+the meaning and the responsibility of the Rational Potential. They had
+understood the reality of being.</p>
+
+<p>Within a century after that they had conquered space. They had found
+peoples like themselves occasionally&mdash;but more often races that had
+followed different biological adaptations to different environments.
+Wherever there seemed to be a spark of primitive rationality the
+Earthmen had stayed and patiently taught the Rational Potential of
+being, which they had learned for themselves only after such
+bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p>The galaxy was theirs, in a sense, for it thought in the patterns of
+Earthmen, although long ago their direct influence had waned. They
+were a legend and an ideal, lost in the vastness of space, yet bound
+fast into the cultures of all peoples.</p>
+
+<p>Yet somewhere the Earthmen must have failed, somewhere there must have
+been a flaw in their teaching. Fifty years earlier, as the Agronians
+measured time, the galaxy had been torn apart by war. The Agronians
+had led one group of planets, the Vininese another. Planet after
+planet was seared by deadly new weapons&mdash;world after world died in the
+orange flame of gaudy atomic disintegration. Slowly the power of Vinin
+crept across the sky until the Vininese ruled half the galaxy.</p>
+
+<p>Their first defeat had come unexpectedly. Their great space-armada
+swung in on Agron, while the people crowded in terror in their flimsy
+raid shelters. But the Vininese ships had vanished high in the air.
+Not even debris had fallen on the planet.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first use of the Nuclear Beams. Dirrul had been a schoolboy
+when the Agronian scientists announced their discovery. He remembered
+the exciting thrill of pride, recalled how he and his schoolmates had
+dreamed of destroying the Vininese with the new weapon.</p>
+
+<p>He remembered too the galling bitterness he had felt when the
+scientists announced that they had made peace instead.</p>
+
+<p>They had had sound reasons, of course. They said the Beams had a
+limited value. They could be used only defensively to girdle a single
+planet in the stratospheric level of its atmosphere. Elsewhere they
+were harmless. To compound the spectacular timidity, the scientists
+had given away the secret to all comers, including the Vininese. They
+had an argument for that particular idiocy too&mdash;if each planet could
+protect itself so easily from all external attack its people could
+freely decide for themselves their galactic allegiance or maintain
+isolated independence.</p>
+
+<p>The Planetary Union had been formed and members of the Vininese
+Confederacy invited to join it. Not a people anywhere in the
+Confederacy made even tentative exploration of the offer while five
+sun systems of the Union later joined the Vininese. That was the fact
+that had ultimately prodded Dirrul into joining the Movement.</p>
+
+<p>Later, when he read the pamphlets brought from Vinin, he had clarified
+his purposes. On the one hand lay the waste, the confusion, the
+uncertainty of Agron. Scientists who talked forever of hypotheses and
+were afraid to stand firm for any absolute truths&mdash;moralists who
+qualified even the simplest standards of right and wrong&mdash;philosophers
+who glorified a condition of eternal chaos which they called an open
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand lay the clean efficiency of Vinin. Scientific
+certainty, and the progress that stemmed from it&mdash;the Space-dragon
+instead of the Safe-sweet candy, a clear social organization in which
+the individual was directed by established and inflexible principles.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of it was history as Dirrul had learned it, the chronology
+of the past. As he looked on the star map of the galaxy, at midpoint
+between the two great unions of planets, the meaning of the past began
+to change. The chronology fell into a new perspective.</p>
+
+<p>Against the vast expanse of space time twisted into a new
+relationship. Time and space began to equate with an exciting
+synonymity. History was not the past, dead and numbered&mdash;history was
+now. All things, all space, all time, were forever fixed at the
+instant of now.</p>
+
+<p>In Dirrul's mind a tumult of facts trembled on the verge of a
+startling new order&mdash;the atomic structure of all energy and the black
+saucer of the galaxy. The violent spasms the Earthmen had suffered
+before they found the Rational Potential and the devastation of the
+Galactic War.</p>
+
+<p>But before he could assess such new values and verbalize the new
+generalization the antiquated warning system of his ship twanged
+tinnily. On the control panel screen he saw the trim outline of a
+white Agronian police ship. A moment later the voice came over the
+speaker, ordering him to state his permit registry and his
+destination.</p>
+
+<p>Dragged so suddenly back to reality, Dirrul reacted in panic. It was a
+routine inquiry. He might have bluffed his way clear. Instead he put
+the cargo ship at top speed toward Vinin and watched helplessly while
+the patrol cruiser closed relentlessly in.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand for search!" the voice commanded.</p>
+
+<p>When he did nothing the police shot a warning rocket over his bow. A
+second shot struck the rear of the cargo ship and tore away a section
+of landing gear. Swearing, Dirrul tried to maneuver out of range, and
+to a certain extent he was successful. But piloting skill could not
+make up for the cumbersome bulk of his unarmed ship. Two more blasts
+hit him, collapsing the forward compartment and knocking out one power
+tube.</p>
+
+<p>At the point of triumph, however, the police patrol turned away and
+left Dirrul limping alone in space. For a moment he was puzzled. In
+another ten minutes they could have boarded the cargo carrier and made
+him prisoner. But he understood when he glanced again at the star
+map&mdash;the Agronian police had pursued him far into Vininese territory.
+If Vininese patrols had found them there it might have created an
+unpleasant intergalactic incident.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul made a quick survey of the damage. He had only one power tube
+intact&mdash;beyond that, the cargo carrier was wrecked and he had on board
+nothing with which to make repairs. He could move ahead only at
+quarter-speed.</p>
+
+<p>Sorgel had put a time limit of one hundred days on the trip to Vinin.
+Headquarters had to know by then of the Plan on Agron. Dirrul had five
+days left and as the hours ran out he was still grinding slowly toward
+the outer atmosphere of Vinin. Quite aware that proper security
+demanded the message be delivered in person, Dirrul nonetheless faced
+the alternative of losing everything if he waited.</p>
+
+<p>Logically weighing all factors, he concluded he would not be risking
+too much, considering the stakes, if he used the teleray. Agron
+monitors could pick it up, of course, and no doubt the outpost
+stations were instructed to record all messages emanating from within
+the territory of Vinin. But Dirrul knew the Air-Command.</p>
+
+<p>They wallowed in the same luxury and comfort enjoyed by the rest of
+the Planetary Union. Outposts personnel, so far from the capital,
+would be even less likely to take their duties seriously than Dirrul's
+own unit.</p>
+
+<p>He tried to make the information enigmatic to the curious and at least
+suggestive to the Vininese. He used the landing Wave-code 373. The
+small red light on the control panel glowed and he knew he had
+established contact. In carefully chosen Vininese he spoke into the
+teleray mouthpiece.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorgel requires help for Glenna-Hurd Plan. Exactly fifty days, their
+time."</p>
+
+<p>He repeated the message. As an afterthought he gave his own position
+and asked for emergency repair assistance. The whole meaning hinged
+upon the names of Glenna and Hurd. However, since they had been taken
+to Vinin, they should already have outlined the Plan to the Vininese
+command. If there were any doubts Headquarters could teleray for
+clarification. When his speaker remained silent Dirrul assumed he had
+been understood.</p>
+
+<p>He began to feel the pull of Vininese gravity, found himself in
+trouble with his ship. He tried to keep the disabled cargo carrier
+relatively stationary, so that the Vininese repair ships could locate
+him. With only one power tube, however, maneuver was impossible. The
+battered ship plunged out of control toward the planet.</p>
+
+<p>For an hour Dirrul fought with all the skill he knew. A thousand feet
+above the surface he managed to force the ship to level off
+temporarily. He had no time to seek a proper landing area and in any
+case his gear had been shot away.</p>
+
+<p>There was a wide flat plain directly below him, in the distance the
+towering mass of a large city silhouetted against a range of
+mountains. Dirrul headed his ship for the open fields, setting the
+safety devices for a crash landing.</p>
+
+<p>He hung around his neck the identification disk Sorgel had given him,
+tucking it beneath his tunic. If he were hurt in the landing, a
+Vininese might find him, and the disk would indicate that he was
+important enough to be taken to the Headquarters Command. If his
+teleray hadn't been understood there might still be a chance for him
+to make his report in person.</p>
+
+<p>The ship crashed against the hard ground. Dirrul felt a wrenching pain
+as the automatic safety arms pinioned him fast to cushion the fall,
+before hurling him free of the blazing control room. After that he
+lost consciousness.</p>
+
+
+<h2>V</h2>
+
+<p>When Dirrul opened his eyes it was after dark but the triple moons of
+Vinin were full and the landscape glowed with a yellowish light. He
+had fallen into a ditch which ran beside a narrow, green-paved road.
+In the distance, hidden in a dense copse of blue tree-like
+vegetation, he saw the fragments of his wrecked ship. The purple grass
+of Vinin spread richly all around him, damp and warm. At the bottom of
+the ditch a reddish trickle of liquid washed over his feet.</p>
+
+<p>His throat ached with thirst. His tongue clung like sand to the roof
+of his mouth. He knew that an Agronian could live in the Vininese
+atmosphere but he was uncertain whether his body could assimilate the
+native liquids. Yet to ease the torture he dipped his hand into the
+red fluid and rubbed a few drops over his lips. The sting of salt
+increased his torment.</p>
+
+<p>His body shuddered with pain as he pulled himself to his feet. He
+crept a few feet along the green highway, and slowly his will mastered
+his strength so that he could walk erect. He began to orient himself a
+little. On the horizon he saw the skyline of the city he had observed
+from the air and he knew he was following the road in the right
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>But the distance was greater than he had estimated. He walked for an
+hour and the city still seemed no closer. Nor had he seen any sign of
+habitation where he might go for help, nothing except the towering
+endless yellow stone wall which he had been following for more than
+half an hour. There was neither gate nor break in the stone. Atop the
+wall regularly spaced brackets held three naked wires in place.</p>
+
+<p>The wall probably guarded the estate of a Vininese official, he
+decided. In that case the wires were either a warning device or a
+charged trap against thieves. Dirrul was puzzled by the obvious
+deduction. Such things were necessary on Agron to protect important
+installations like the Beam Transmitters&mdash;but he had hardly expected
+there would be a need for them on Vinin. Yet when he considered it
+objectively, why not? Every system of society, no matter how ideal,
+would produce inevitable malcontents&mdash;there were fools among the
+Vininese, as there were among other peoples.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul saw a towering gate in the wall and ran ahead eagerly, only to
+fall in disappointment against the thick metal grille. The gate was
+locked by a concealed device he could not locate. At a considerable
+distance inside the wall was a second, higher than the first. Dirrul
+saw a faint light at the inner gate and assumed there was a guard of
+some sort stationed there. He tried with all his strength to cry out
+for help but his throat was dust-dry. He could utter only a faint
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p>When he tried to go on he was overcome with exhaustion. He staggered a
+few feet beyond the gate and collapsed into the ditch. He lay face
+down in the warm purple grass, his swollen tongue hanging limply from
+his mouth. Imperceptibly the thirst began to diminish. After a
+moment's speculation Dirrul understood why and crushed a handful of
+the purple grass against his lips. It was warm and sweet&mdash;a comforting
+liquid began to flow down his throat. He plunged his head luxuriously
+into a thick mass of the weed, breathing deeply the sweet odor of the
+crushed blades.</p>
+
+<p>A silent grey vehicle darted along the green road and jerked to a stop
+in front of the gate. It came so quickly Dirrul had no time to call
+out. The Vininese driver stood up and bawled orders at the inner gate.
+A faint voice replied. The driver shouted again. The gate swung open
+and the vehicle moved inside.</p>
+
+<p>Bewildered, Dirrul sat up, his head reeling. He understood a little
+Vininese, not enough to translate exactly what had been said but
+enough to make out a tantalizing half-meaning. The driver was
+searching all the work camps, he had said, for the Agronian girl,
+Glenna. He wanted to check something or other to see if she were here.</p>
+
+<p>Work camp? Dirrul decided he must have got the word wrong. Glenna and
+Hurd might still be in hospitals but if they had recovered they would
+be honored citizens of Vinin. Still&mdash;what sort of hospital would have
+both double walls and alarm wires?</p>
+
+<p>Only an asylum for hopeless mental cases! The realization made Dirrul
+cold with a terrible fear. Glenna&mdash;hopelessly insane!</p>
+
+<p>To save the Movement it was vital for Dirrul to make his report
+immediately. What help could the Vininese get from a madwoman? He
+sprang up and ran dizzily to the gate. Before he could shout for the
+guard shadowy figures rose up around him, silently closing great hairy
+hands over his mouth and dragging him back across the road.</p>
+
+<p>Tied and gagged Dirrul watched while the black-robed creatures worked
+stealthily at the central bars of the gate with tiny blue-flaming
+torches. Beneath their flowing capes they were beings like himself,
+which indicated that they were either Agronian or Vininese, for by the
+perverse chance of biological adaptation the people of the two planets
+were so structurally similar that even intermarriage was possible. One
+by one they cut out the bars until the span in the gate was wide
+enough for them to work their way through.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the band stood in the road, apparently talking. At least
+their lips moved and their hands fluttered expressively but Dirrul
+heard no sound. Reaching a decision they went through the gate in
+single file, carrying long vicious weapons with them. Two of the
+black-caped men came and stood guard on either side of Dirrul.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever these vandals were doing they were working in stealth and
+fear and Dirrul realized their aim must be illegal. He fought to break
+free of his bonds so that he might warn the loyal Vininese garrison.
+The two guards shoved him back roughly. One of them grabbed Dirrul's
+tunic in a claw grip and the cloth tore open, revealing Sorgel's
+identification disk.</p>
+
+<p>Both guards bent over him, fingering the disk, talking soundlessly
+with their facile fingers. Suddenly they jerked the disk off, snapping
+the chain. At the same moment a rolling explosion from within the
+wall shook the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul heard a great noise and a terrifying fear filled his mind. It
+was a steady undiminishing fear that gripped every muscle of his body.
+His throat was ice-cold. His heart pounded and gasped for breath.
+Every nerve-end in his body quivered and his imagination was swamped
+with a flood of shattering ephemeral horrors.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could shake off the terror. Dirrul's skill with reason and
+logic failed him. It was impossible to organize his thinking to combat
+the sensory shock waves disrupting his thoughts. Logical patterns made
+no sense. The very process of trying to build meaning into them&mdash;the
+process of thinking itself&mdash;left him weak and trembling.</p>
+
+<p>The guards watched his terror for a moment, watched while he clung
+close to the ground, trying to dig his fingers into it. Then one of
+them laughed&mdash;a piercing discordant shriek, shrilling louder than the
+din behind the wall. The second man, snarling viciously, kicked Dirrul
+in the ribs.</p>
+
+<p>For Dirrul the blaze of pain was almost a relief. As his body
+responded to it on a level of instinct, the chattering terror in his
+mind diminished. A second blow on the head sent him reeling close to
+the brink of unconsciousness. His perceptive reactions went slightly
+out of focus.</p>
+
+<p>In a wavering mist he saw the black figures emerge from the gate,
+dragging a dozen or more captives with them. A second explosion rocked
+the earth and flames leaped high behind the yellow wall. In the glare
+Dirrul recognized Glenna, struggling frantically in the arms of her
+masked captor.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul's memory after that was a vague patchwork of unrelated
+episodes. He saw huge saddled reptilian bipeds dragged out of the
+concealing brush. The captives were bound in the saddles and the
+black-robed figures mounted behind them. Later two of the men pulled
+Dirrul up and tied him across a saddle too.</p>
+
+<p>At a sickening gallop the caravan moved away from the green highway,
+striking out over the purple plain. For a while Dirrul lost rational
+control of sensation. He felt but without understanding. His brain
+pulsed in a continuous terror that seemed to resolve itself into
+sound&mdash;a continuous high-pitched scream coming from within his own
+mind. His body throbbed with pain and nausea wrenched emptily at the
+muscles of his stomach. But he could not sort out the feelings,
+classify them or adjust to them.</p>
+
+<p>At the edge of the plain the caravan turned up a steep rocky trail
+which led into the ragged range of mountains banked behind the
+Vininese city. They came to a stop in a stony ravine, concealed
+beneath a tangle of gigantic purple-leafed vines.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul's captors dismounted and removed their black cloaks, hiding
+them among the rocks. Underneath they wore the warm gray skintight
+workers' clothing of Vinin. The majority left their animals tethered
+to the roots of the vine and began the steep descent on foot to the
+city. Only three remained behind to guard the prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>They built a small fire and prepared food, serving the hot sweet
+chunks of white meat in large wicker baskets. As soon as Dirrul
+discovered that he could stomach the food he wolfed his share
+hungrily. The guards brought him more. He felt better. Except for the
+sing-song ringing in his head he might have been able to think clearly
+enough to evaluate his own position.</p>
+
+<p>But that could be done later. He was overcome by an immense
+drowsiness. He relaxed and slept.</p>
+
+
+<h2>VI</h2>
+
+<p>A shrill scream woke him with a start of horror. His captors had taken
+him from his saddle and propped him against a mound of rocks, along
+with the other prisoners. His muscles were numb and dead, so limp it
+was almost impossible for him to turn his head. Faintly the whirring
+terror whispered in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul's eyes focused slowly on the clearing. One of the prisoners had
+been carried there, close to the fire. It was Glenna. Two of her
+captors held her while the third bent over her head, probing her ear
+with a sharp instrument. His arm moved. Glenna screamed and fainted.
+For a moment Dirrul saw the side of her face smeared with a spreading
+stain of blood. Then nausea swept over him. When he opened his eyes
+again the three men were working over another prisoner at the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Vaguely Dirrul knew he had to escape. He forgot the Movement&mdash;he
+thought of nothing any loftier than his own personal survival. The
+idea was elemental, built upon the simplest sort of observation and
+hypothesis.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it came slowly and painfully, as if he had just tried to
+understand after one reading the Cranmor-Frasher Theory of Diminishing
+Corelatives. As he verbalized the conclusion two things happened&mdash;the
+drug-like languor in his muscles began to disperse and the shrilling
+note of terror burst up loud in his mind once more.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the men brought their last victim back from the fire and laid
+his body on the stones close to Dirrul. Dirrul feigned sleep when they
+stood over him. One of them prodded him with the tip of a dusty
+boot&mdash;then they both laughed.</p>
+
+<p>They went back to the fire and talked soundlessly to their companions,
+holding up the identification disk which had been ripped from Dirrul's
+neck hours before. That amused them briefly, until one of the three
+snatched the disk and hurled it toward the mouth of the ravine in
+violent anger.</p>
+
+<p>The three men pulled thick white skins together near the fire and
+crept into them. Dirrul waited until he was sure they slept. It was
+the only chance he would have to escape, but when he tried to creep
+away his hands collapsed from sheer terror. The crying fear in his
+mind was so loud his head seemed to vibrate physically with the
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>Thought was impossible. Judgment and decision were impossible. If he
+tried to consider even a problem as simple as the safest means of
+passing the dying fire&mdash;reason failed him. He could weigh nothing
+critically&mdash;he could not consider probable courses of rational action.</p>
+
+<p>Nonetheless he inched forward. It took all the courage and stamina he
+possessed. Gradually a strange and foggy understanding formed in his
+brain. The terror seemed to die if he planned nothing, merely
+responding without thought to the instinctive urge to escape. Let
+instinct do the trick then.</p>
+
+<p>Detached from the control panel of his cerebral cortex his body
+mechanism functioned perfectly. It was like a space-ship smoothly
+piloted by its automatic navigators. Dirrul gave himself over to his
+own built-in stimulus-response relays and the screeching fear
+shriveled and died.</p>
+
+<p>Calm and unhurried he walked past the fire and the sleeping men. As
+calmly he searched the mouth of the ravine for Sorgel's disk. When he
+found it he stuffed it into the pocket of his tunic and strode
+confidently along the trail that led down from the hills.</p>
+
+<p>It was dawn. In the pink morning light he could see the Vininese city
+at his feet, neat, clean, well-blocked streets and towering buildings
+of black stone. On the outskirts were the circular space-fields and
+the long low flat-roofed interplanetary freight depots. Farther away,
+dotting the countryside at regular intervals, were curious
+block-shaped windowless structures surrounded by double walls.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul had never seen anything like them before but, through a process
+of judicial elimination, he decided they must be the Vininese Beam
+Transmitters. The defense of Vinin was remarkably thorough, far
+surpassing anything of a similar nature on Agron.</p>
+
+<p>It came to him with something of a shock that he was thinking
+rationally once more. His mind was completely clear. He felt ashamed
+of the foolish, groundless terror that had unnerved him in the ravine.
+He tried to understand what had happened to him but it was beyond
+analysis. In retrospect he realized that the danger had been less than
+what he faced on any normal day in the Air-Command emergency
+maintenance service.</p>
+
+<p>The only logical explanation was the food they had given him. It must
+have been heavily drugged with a new poison known to the Vininese.
+Dirrul was tempted to go back and rescue Glenna, if she were still
+alive after the torture to which she had been subjected. But he knew
+it was more important for him to contact Vininese Headquarters first.
+He had a message to deliver. Glenna herself would have wanted that.</p>
+
+<p>In two hours Dirrul was on the plain again. All the suffering of the
+past few hours was gone. The plentiful purple grass had quenched his
+thirst and surprisingly eased his hunger as well. He felt keenly alert
+and alive. The sun was warm, the air was balmy. He was on Vinin.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritually he had come home, to the thing he believed in. Not many
+men had such opportunity to realize their dreams of perfection. To cap
+the triumph Dirrul knew it might still be possible to make his report
+and save the Movement on Agron.</p>
+
+<p>From the top of a purple-swathed knoll he looked down across a
+twisting red stream toward the suburbs of the city. Magnificent
+black-stone villas, surrounded by stylized gardens, were on both sides
+of the green highway.</p>
+
+<p>Further on, close to the city, were the crowded workers' quarters,
+behind them, hidden in a faint mist, the rectangular masses of public
+buildings reaching up toward the stars. This was as Paul Sorgel had so
+often described it. Such grandeur could only belong to the capital
+city of the Vininese Confederacy.</p>
+
+<p>Under the brow of the knoll Dirrul saw one of the stone block
+buildings within its protective double walls. A huge trumpet-like
+transmitter was exposed at the top of the structure. In some ways it
+resembled the Beam Transmitters on Agron but the differences were so
+striking Dirrul knew it was a totally new device&mdash;possibly a more
+efficient variation invented by the Vininese. The faint hum of
+machinery and the regular movement of the sending tube indicated that
+the machine was running&mdash;but for what purpose Dirrul could only guess.</p>
+
+<p>The yard between the two walls was patrolled by a smartly disciplined
+score of Vininese. Dirrul considered going to them to ask for
+transportation to the city but changed his mind. It was very possible
+that the installation was secret. The guards might have had
+instructions to dispose immediately of any intruder. On the whole it
+seemed wiser to go a little farther to one of the walled villas.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul walked half a thousand feet along the green highway and turned
+up the drive leading toward one of the sprawling mansions. As he
+passed the portals of the open gate an alarm bell clanged&mdash;seconds
+later five Vininese infantry surrounded him, prodding him into the
+house with their gleaming weapons. In precise Vininese, carefully
+enunciated, Dirrul tried to explain what he wanted&mdash;but the guards
+made no reply, merely staring at him with cold glazed eyes,
+comprehending nothing.</p>
+
+<p>They threw him roughly into a dark room, where a slim Vininese waited
+in a lounge chair. As Dirrul's eyes grew accustomed to the faint light
+he saw that the Vininese held a snub-nosed rocket-pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"Your permit?" the Vininese asked languidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday I came here from&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have no permit. I must shoot you, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, I have a message from Agron! You must take me to Headquarters!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're a tourist. But this is a prohibited area. From the dust
+on your tunic, I take it you have done a great deal of walking. A
+pity, my friend&mdash;naturally you've seen the transmitters."</p>
+
+<p>"We have them on Agron but it is of no importance."</p>
+
+<p>The Vininese threw back his head and laughed, "Oh, no&mdash;of no
+importance&mdash;you have seen nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand you," Dirrul said desperately. "My Vininese is
+very poor. But you must help me. I bring news of the Movement on Agron
+and time is short." Anxiously Dirrul plunged into his story, tripping
+repeatedly over the involved syntax of Vinin to his host's obvious
+amusement.</p>
+
+<p>Eventually, however, he made his point, for the tall Vininese said,
+"Then you must be the agent who sent the teleray report. We've been
+looking for you, sir. We feared, after you crashed, that you might
+have been taken by the vagabonds." Still holding Dirrul centered in
+the gunsight the Vininese picked up a portable teleray and asked for
+Headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>While he waited he added, "You must forgive this reception, my friend
+from Agron. We have been having so much trouble with the vagabonds
+lately we must all go armed. Here in the transmission area we must be
+particularly alert."</p>
+
+<p>His tone was warm but the gun never wavered. When he made his
+connection he spoke rapidly into the mouthpiece, too rapidly for
+Dirrul to work out an accurate translation. It seemed, however, that
+the conversation was centered around the transmitters rather than the
+report Dirrul had to make. The Vininese finished the dialogue and
+smiled engagingly at Dirrul.</p>
+
+<p>"I am to take you to the capital, my friend," he said. "They are
+preparing a reception for you. You are a hero of Vinin, to have braved
+so much for the cause."</p>
+
+<p>The Vininese came forward suddenly and pulled aside the torn cloth at
+the throat of Dirrul's tunic.</p>
+
+<p>"But you&mdash;you must have a disk!" The Vininese was suddenly frightened.
+"There is no tourist stamp on your arm. I don't understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Paul Sorgel loaned me his when I left Agron." Dirrul felt in his
+tunic pocket. "He said I was to give it to the Chief when I made my
+report but if you must see it now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no&mdash;by all means, keep it." The tall man's voice was pleasant
+again. "I was simply afraid that someone might have come who&mdash;but it
+is nothing. I am weary from all this vigilance against the vagabonds.
+It is hard to think realistically."</p>
+
+<p>"I was surprised to see so much lawlessness on Vinin."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you're very naive, my friend. There's an element like that among
+all people, although I must admit ours here have suddenly become
+excessively active. Their attacks are so systematic and so
+well-organized! Hardly a night passes without trouble at a work camp
+or a transmitter station.</p>
+
+<p>"Your transmitters are different from ours. Have you developed an
+improvement in technique?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are, curious, aren't they? You must ask the Chief to tell you
+all about them." The Vininese chuckled with delight. "I wouldn't want
+to spoil his surprise by letting you in on the secret first."</p>
+
+
+<h2>VII</h2>
+
+<p>The Vininese drove Dirrul to the city in a heavily armed surface car.
+Two of the infantrymen sat behind them, their rocket guns ready on
+their knees. It was testimony to the efficiency and organization of
+Vinin that such a finished reception could be prepared on such short
+notice. Dirrul's first intimation of the scope of the ceremony came
+when they stopped at a school to be cheered by the pupils.</p>
+
+<p>Rank upon rank of boys and girls lined up smartly behind the high wire
+fence. They ranged in ages from tots, barely able to stand, to young
+people in late adolescence. Except for the round metal disks, which
+all of them wore, they were completely naked.</p>
+
+<p>"Clothing breeds such false modesty and so many foolish frustrations,"
+Dirrul's host explained. "On Vinin every child is reared in completely
+objective equality. As soon as we take them from their parents&mdash;about
+the time when they're first learning to walk&mdash;we give them
+identification disks. Before that, when they're in the instinct
+period, the disks aren't necessary.</p>
+
+<p>"After their basic education we classify them. The leader-class is
+issued permanent disks and the others give theirs up. The adjustment
+is something very severe but on the whole the casualties are light."
+Suddenly the Vininese seized Dirrul's hand and looked into his eyes.
+"I trust you follow me, my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Dirrul answered. Reason led him to a conclusion as he looked at
+the massed children, a conclusion he could not bring himself to face.
+He felt a new kind of fear, as cold as the depths of space and as
+devoid of emotion. Instead of trusting to his own logic Dirrul
+struggled to find a flaw in it&mdash;for a man cannot easily watch his
+dream turn to dust in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>They drove on into the city. Rows of men and women in working clothes
+lined the streets, cheering wildly in unison. Crossed Vininese flags
+were draped between the buildings and brave-colored streamers danced
+in the wind.</p>
+
+<p>"A reception is good for them," the Vininese said. "We need heroes
+occasionally. It's fortunate you came when you did. The vagabonds have
+had a disturbing effect on morale and it's impossible to suppress the
+news entirely."</p>
+
+<p>The vehicle stopped before the towering government building. Dirrul
+was led up a flight of stone steps to a wide porch overlooking the
+mass of cheering upturned faces in the public square. He stood
+motionless while speeches were made and gay ribbon was draped around
+his neck. The air shook with bright explosions&mdash;a huge flag was
+unfurled over the porch&mdash;band music began to blare and a tidal wave of
+precision-trained Vininese infantry wheeled into the square.</p>
+
+<p>An official touched Dirrul's arm. "You must take the salute of our
+work-leaders now."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul was pushed back against the stone railing as an orderly mob
+filed past, blank-faced and chattering with meaningless pleasure. Many
+of them pressed forward to touch his hand before the guards tactfully
+hurried them on. When the organized confusion was at its height a tiny
+square of paper was slipped into his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul had no idea which of the mob had given it to him and he dared
+not glance at it. But he managed to hide the paper in the band of his
+tunic.</p>
+
+<p>Hour by hour the throng filed past, endless and meaningless. It was an
+agony for Dirrul. For the first time he looked into the face of his
+dream and saw the reality of Vinin&mdash;order, discipline, efficiency&mdash;and
+utter blankness. Unhappily he recalled one of Dr. Kramer's lectures.</p>
+
+<p>"... Defiance of convention, confusion, frustration, stubbornness&mdash;yes
+and a touch of the neurotic too&mdash;these goad the individual into
+solving problems. And problem solving is progress. An orderly society
+that asks no questions of itself, a society that has no doubts, is a
+dying society...."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul understood the professor at last. He looked squarely at the
+fact of what he was, a traitor to his own people, on the verge of
+betraying them. He had been wonderfully deluded by his own
+self-deception.</p>
+
+<p>But the job wasn't quite finished. The Vininese would not have gone to
+take Glenna from the hospital if they had understood his teleray. Let
+them splurge on their reception! He was unimpressed. When the time
+came for questions to be answered he would conveniently forget why he
+had been sent to Vinin. Nothing they could do would drag it out of
+him.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd thinned and Dirrul was taken inside the building, where his
+Vininese host awaited him. Sighing deeply the Vininese stood up.
+"These public displays do take so much of our time," he said, "but
+it's over now." This last seemed to amuse him and he repeated it
+softly before adding, "The Chief's ready to see you."</p>
+
+<p>Remembering the note and the flimsy possibility that it might suggest
+a way out, Dirrul answered quickly, "But, sir, I really ought to clean
+up first."</p>
+
+<p>"You Agronians have such weird notions of propriety!"</p>
+
+<p>"I would feel more presentable to your Chief if&mdash;if I could have a
+bath. Perhaps I might even borrow a change of clothing."</p>
+
+<p>The Vininese fingered his chin thoughtfully. "It might be more
+amusing. Yes, the Chief can wait a few minutes longer for you to
+satisfy your vanity."</p>
+
+<p>He summoned a blank-faced liveried servant and asked for a clean
+worker's suit for Dirrul. Then he took Dirrul to the wall tube and
+they shot noiselessly to an upper floor. As he left Dirrul at the
+door of a luxurious suite, the Vininese said, "When you change your
+clothes, my friend, don't forget to take the disk out of your tunic.
+The Chief will want it when you see him."</p>
+
+<p>When he was sure he was alone Dirrul spread open the note. It was a
+crude drawing of a hearing aid and beneath it a cryptic sentence
+written in Agronian,</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I lost mine and so has Glenna now.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The signature was unmistakably Hurd's but the note made no sense.
+Hurd's hearing was as sound as Dirrul's. He had never used a
+mechanical device&mdash;how could he have lost it then? <i>So has
+Glenna</i>&mdash;that must be the key. Hurd somehow knew about the vagabond
+raiding party that had rescued Glenna from the mental hospital. He
+must have escaped from the Vininese earlier himself. He was probably
+hiding somewhere in the capital.</p>
+
+<p>Working on this hypothesis Dirrul made a guess that the thing Hurd had
+lost was his illusion about the Vininese system. The hearing aid
+symbolized what Hurd had been told about it, as opposed to the reality
+which he saw with his own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But such an interpretation didn't ring entirely true. It was too
+involved for an idea which could have been better expressed in four
+words&mdash;<i>I know the truth</i>. Tossing the note aside Dirrul turned on the
+water in the shower room and thoughtfully disrobed.</p>
+
+<p>As he threw his tunic aside a violent paralyzing terror seized his
+mind, making his head sing with a screeching vibration. Blindly he
+snatched up the tunic in order to stuff the cloth into his mouth so he
+would not cry out. But as soon as he pressed it against his skin his
+terror vanished, like a siren suddenly stilled.</p>
+
+<p>The pattern of the real truth fell into place then. Now he understood
+the power of Vinin. Experimentally he took Sorgel's disk out of his
+tunic and laid it on a table. As soon as he did so the blinding
+nameless horror flamed up. When he held the disk again the exhausting
+emotion vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back Dirrul saw an abundance of evidence that might have given
+him a clue, had he not spent so much mental effort bolstering his
+illusion of Vinin. There was the circumstance of his own unrelenting
+terror when he was without the disk in the ravine&mdash;the painful sight
+of his captors puncturing the prisoners' eardrums&mdash;the soundless talk
+of the vagabonds, like the lip-reading of the deaf&mdash;the bleak
+orderliness of the cheering mobs&mdash;and, most obvious of all, the
+strange transmitters atop the well-guarded stone block-buildings.</p>
+
+<p>It was all there, even to the final cruelty to the children. What was
+it the Vininese had said? "The adjustment is sometimes very severe but
+on the whole the casualties are light." And the very young, before
+they were taken from their parents, didn't need disks because they
+were in what the Vininese had called "the instinct period."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul knew what Hurd's drawing meant. Somehow Hurd had lost his
+hearing, perhaps as a result of the beating the police had given him
+on Agron. In any case only the deaf could think rationally on Vinin.
+Hurd was telling Dirrul to shatter his own sense of hearing if he
+still had the will to think and act for himself. The nightmare Dirrul
+had witnessed in the ravine was not torture but the bravery of
+desperate men attempting to rescue rational minds.</p>
+
+<p>The Rational Potential&mdash;the gift of the legendary Earthmen! Like the
+processes of thought itself it could never be wiped out by argument or
+reason once it was understood. The Earthmen had wasted centuries
+trying to undo their own evolved rationality before they realized it
+could not be done. Now, on a higher level in another plane, the
+Vininese were struggling to submerge the Earthmen's second achievement
+of the Rational Potential.</p>
+
+<p>It was done by their transmitters. A wave of some sort&mdash;probably
+subsonic or supersonic&mdash;continuously filled the Vininese atmosphere.
+The Vininese who wore the disks were protected against it. The others
+succumbed if they retained their hearing. As Dirrul himself had
+discovered in the ravine, when he did not consciously think the terror
+diminished.</p>
+
+<p>All Vininese children were given a basic education. It built up their
+automatic responses, established correct stimulus-response behavior
+patterns. Then, for the masses, the protective disks were eliminated
+and the screeching fear pounded at them until the processes of
+creative thinking were destroyed, leaving a backlog of malleable and
+obedient habit patterns. The problem solving was done for them by
+their masters.</p>
+
+<p>The Vininese Confederacy&mdash;half the galaxy&mdash;was peopled by billions
+upon billions of robot races, ruled by a handful of men with absolute
+power. To that Dirrul would have betrayed his planet! To slavery and
+to the destruction of the Rational Potential, all for the slippery
+dream of orderliness and efficiency which masqueraded as progress.</p>
+
+<p>He could save Agron today&mdash;but for how long? Sorgel would bewitch
+countless other discontented Agronian fools. The Movement would try
+again and one day the Vininese space fleet would penetrate the
+Agronian Nuclear Beams. Dirrul had to escape. He had to go home and
+tell the truth about Vinin.</p>
+
+<p>And it was impossible. He was completely trapped with no visible way
+out for himself.</p>
+
+
+<h2>VIII</h2>
+
+<p>Dirrul stood in front of the metal-surfaced reflector, fingering the
+cap of his ear. To survive as a thinking being he must deafen himself.
+Yet he hesitated. Self-inflicted violence was the negation of the
+Rational Potential.</p>
+
+<p>Then, slowly, he developed a new idea. He could use the power of
+Vinin, to save Agron if not himself!</p>
+
+<p>There came a knock on his door. Dirrul drew on his tunic as a stranger
+entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"The Chief is impatient&mdash;you must come at once."</p>
+
+<p>Durril was led through a metal-roofed tunnel into a wide sunny
+transparent-walled room at the top of the building. The door closed
+behind him. He was alone with a tall smooth-faced man, exotically
+costumed in a tight black suit crusted with white jewels and framed by
+a white cloak thrown loosely around his shoulders. He sat back of a
+tremendous desk&mdash;behind his chair was a tilted panel of dials, levers
+and tiny glowing lights, running the length of the room under the
+ceiling-high window.</p>
+
+<p>"It is always a pleasure to welcome a hero of the Vininese
+Confederacy," the Chief said without getting up. His tone was slow,
+tired, emotionless. His eyes were without expression. "May I ask your
+name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dirrul&mdash;Edward Dirrul."</p>
+
+<p>"And you come from Agron with a message from our agent," he said,
+speaking Agronian. "So much we got from your teleray. In fifty
+days&mdash;actually forty-nine from now, by your time&mdash;your local Movement
+will have use for a Vininese space-fleet. I have already dispatched
+Sub-units B and C. Now, if you will give me the details of your Plan I
+can code-wave them to my commander."</p>
+
+<p>"There's been a mistake, sir. What I really meant when I sent the
+message was&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So you've discovered the truth." The Chief's hand darted toward a
+cubicle of his desk and he held a metal-barreled weapon aimed steadily
+at Dirrul. "These things are always so tedious. Give me your disk."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," Dirrul agreed readily but as he felt in his pocket the
+Chief gestured negatively with his weapon.</p>
+
+<p>"No, keep it." After a pause he added, "You're certain that you know,
+Dirrul?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've seen the transmitters."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why aren't you afraid? Why do you consent so readily? The others
+are always terrified&mdash;they'll confess to anything if I promise to let
+them keep the disks. Have you ever heard the sound, Dirrul? Do you
+really know what it's like?"</p>
+
+<p>"You want information from me. You have no chance of getting it if you
+deprive me of the ability to think."</p>
+
+<p>"Granted. And otherwise?"</p>
+
+<p>"You won't get it either."</p>
+
+<p>The Chief sighed wearily. "You are simply trading one romantic
+illusion for another. You have somehow convinced yourself that one
+man&mdash;one lone Agronian&mdash;can hold out against us. Let me tell you a
+little about our system, Dirrul, so you'll understand how futile it is
+to waste your time and mine like this." Not a trace of feeling came
+into his voice. He sounded slightly bored, reciting a matter-of-fact
+chronology of statistics.</p>
+
+<p>"As you have guessed we create our leader-class on each of our planets
+by protecting them from the sound waves with the disks. If scattered
+groups among the general public should ever gain immunity&mdash;as far as
+we know only idiots and the deaf can do that&mdash;they could never carry
+out a successful revolt. The only way would be for the transmitter
+stations to be silenced.</p>
+
+<p>"However, every unit operates independently on its own power. We have
+thousands of them on every planet. All but one could be destroyed, and
+that one transmitter would still be enough to control the planet. You
+begin to see, I think, that any kind of resistance is foolish. In time
+you can be made to do as I ask. Unfortunately, we have no time to
+spare.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you're thinking that outsiders&mdash;tourists, let's say&mdash;could
+come here and overthrow us. All rational beings in the galaxy are
+subject to the same physical laws. They still must hear and if they do
+they're powerless.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, our secret is remarkably well-kept. The tourists and
+merchants come to our planet in droves. They notice nothing&mdash;because
+of the amusing idiosyncrasy of Vininese customs men, who are required
+to stamp the hand of each visitor with an identification mark. The
+coloring material is atomically constituted to act as a temporary disk
+while the tourist is among us. He notices nothing amiss. He sees what
+we want him to see&mdash;he goes home favorably impressed&mdash;and by that time
+the mark has worn away. You get the general picture, Dirrul? Nothing
+can ever defeat us."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing but yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Romantic nonsense! Let me show you what I can do, Dirrul, even when
+you wear a disk. I think you'll bargain then." The Chief turned a
+little to face the panel behind his desk, feeling over the dials while
+he kept Dirrul framed in his gunsight.</p>
+
+<p>"The young man you went to this morning for help is a sadist. The
+reception was his idea&mdash;so was your bath. He likes to have our
+traitors&mdash;and you are a traitor, of course, to your own people&mdash;he
+likes to have them discover the truth before we take their disks away.
+It's an exquisite torture but in your case annoying, since it puts you
+in a position to bargain. Now it occurs to me that your host should be
+disciplined for his bungling."</p>
+
+<p>The Chief pointed to the surface of his desk. "Watch the screen,
+Dirrul." An opaque rectangle glowed with light, slowly came into
+focus, and revealed a large mirrored lounge, where a number of
+official Vininese stood talking and drinking. The Chief twisted a
+dial, pulled a lever and one of the Vininese collapsed, writhing on
+the glassy floor in violent agony.</p>
+
+<p>The screen went blank.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not only decontrolled your friend's disk," the Chief explained
+blandly, "but I have doubled his receptability to sound. I can
+continue the treatment until he goes mad&mdash;or I can snap it off and let
+it serve as a warning.</p>
+
+<p>"From this panel here I control every disk-wearer on Vinin&mdash;including
+yourself, Dirrul. You understand, I think, that there can never be
+any disloyalty among our leaders&mdash;they're consciously aware of the
+consequences. And revolt in the ranks is physically impossible. We're
+safe, you see, even from ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Once again there was a slight trace of emotion in the weary voice. "No
+doubt you also gather, Dirrul, who is the real ruler of Vinin. There
+are a hundred thousand of us, more or less, scattered throughout the
+Confederacy. All right&mdash;tell me what I need to know. If your Plan
+succeeds I'll deputize you for Agron when we annex it."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Dirrul saw the answer. His heart leaped with joy and it was
+difficult to keep the feeling out of his voice when he said, "You have
+been talking to me in my own tongue." Carefully he inched toward the
+desk. "And understanding me."</p>
+
+<p>"Entirely beside the point."</p>
+
+<p>"Not entirely. You hear what I say&mdash;which means that you must wear a
+disk too."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul sprang across the desk. At the same time the Chief raised his
+weapon and fired. Flame seared Dirrul's cheek. A red mist welled
+before him and he reeled back against the control panel as the Chief
+fired again. The second explosion was so close it seemed to be within
+his own mind.</p>
+
+<p>The Chief's hand clawed at Dirrul's tunic, ripping the disk away from
+him. Recoiling in anticipation of the dread shock wave, Dirrul hurled
+himself at the Chief.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of the screaming terror he felt nothing. An inexplicable
+force seemed to close in on him. His head spun dizzily but his mind
+still functioned. He smashed his fist into the face of the Chief and
+the body sagged to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul stood bewildered, looking at his hand. A mass of flesh-like
+material, torn from the Chief's face, clung to his knuckles. Dirrul
+bent over the man and touched his skin. It crumbled under pressure and
+the lifelike purple coloring ran. Dirrul peeled the putty away until
+he could make out the shape of the pale wrinkled very aged face
+beneath.</p>
+
+<p>Sickened he moved away&mdash;for he had seen the ruler of Vinin.</p>
+
+
+<h2>IX</h2>
+
+<p>Dirrul backed into the desk, knocking a fragile statuette to the
+floor. When it lay shattered at his feet he understood why he could
+still plan and reason, even though the disk was gone. The Chief's
+shot, fired so close to his head, had deafened him either temporarily
+or permanently.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul ran to the control panel and twisted dials frantically, pulling
+every lever he could find. He had no idea what he was doing and it
+didn't matter so long as something happened. If he could decontrol
+even half the disks on Vinin it would create enough confusion to cover
+his own escape.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Twenty-five days later the Space-dragon shot up from the space-field
+which was hidden among the stony Vininese mountain ravines. As it cut
+through the stratosphere Dirrul's bonds were released. He felt
+exhausted and empty. His last memory was of talking to Hurd on the
+mountain trail. Beyond that was a blank. He looked up at Glenna, as
+beautiful as ever but somehow more mature.</p>
+
+<p>"You're all right now, Eddie?" she asked in a loud voice that betrayed
+her deafness.</p>
+
+<p>"I think so. Where are you taking me?"</p>
+
+<p>She touched her ears, still crudely bandaged. "You must say everything
+very slowly, Eddie. I haven't yet learned to read lips as well as Hurd
+does."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are we going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Back to Agron."</p>
+
+<p>"We have no right, Glenna&mdash;we're traitors!"</p>
+
+<p>"We have a duty to tell them the truth. What they do with us doesn't
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head weakly, still lost in his stupor. "Tell me what
+happened, Glenna&mdash;I can't remember anything."</p>
+
+<p>"You got out of the government building and stole a Space-dragon. Then
+you came looking for us. Just after you met Hurd your hearing began to
+come back and of course you lost control of yourself. Hurd wanted to
+break your eardrums but I wouldn't let him.</p>
+
+<p>"Since we had a space-ship at last we could get away from Vinin and I
+knew you'd be all right when we did. But it took us a month to steal
+enough fuel. Something you did in the government building paralyzed a
+lot of the leaders for a while but by the time we got around to
+looking for fuel the others had restored order again."</p>
+
+<p>The door of the control room slid open and Hurd dropped down on the
+bunk beside Dirrul. "Feeling better?" he asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess so. The whole picture's beginning to come back."</p>
+
+<p>Hurd sighed with relief and his face relaxed.</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul asked slowly, "How did you get away from them, Hurd?"</p>
+
+<p>"I lost my hearing in the beating Sorgel gave me on Agron."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Sorgel!</i>" Dirrul repeated unbelievingly. It was the last illusion to
+go and for that reason the most painful. "Then it wasn't the Agronian
+police&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it was Sorgel," Glenna said quietly. "He had to get rid of
+us because we wouldn't go along with him on the idea of a Vininese
+invasion. I tried so hard to tell you, Eddie, but I couldn't because
+of the drugs they gave us."</p>
+
+<p>"The Vininese never knew I was deaf," Hurd went on. "It's easy enough
+to escape from a work camp when you can think for yourself. The
+Vininese resistance found me in the hills and I've been working with
+them ever since. A pitiful band of the deaf, fighting insurmountable
+odds to win back the human dignity of half the galaxy! But they won't
+turn tail and run and their numbers grow every time they raid a work
+camp."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you with the men who kidnapped Glenna?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were all out that night, trying to keep watch on the camps near
+the capital. We didn't know which one Glenna was in but I was sure the
+Vininese would try to reach her after they got your teleray message.
+We counted on the Vininese leading us to her and we knew we had to
+kidnap her first if we were to keep them from learning about the Plan
+on Agron.</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately I wasn't with the group that picked you up, Eddie. They
+thought they had taken a Vininese leader and it seemed such a suitable
+punishment to take your disk away and let you hear the sound for a
+while. Later&mdash;after you'd escaped&mdash;when the others described your
+Air-Command uniform I took a chance and sent my note."</p>
+
+<p>He helped Dirrul to his feet. "You'll have to take over from here on
+in, Eddie. You said you knew how to pilot this thing. I figured out a
+take-off but that's as far as I can go."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorgel's pilot showed me once," he said. "What I don't remember I'll
+improvise. He said a Space-dragon could make the run in thirty days.
+This baby's got to do it in less than twenty-five if we're going to
+beat the Vininese fleet to Agron."</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't tell them the Plan, did you, Eddie?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"The Vininese won't land without instructions."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorgel may get up enough courage to send a teleray code. We can't
+take any chances either."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul drove himself without rest. He cut every corner he knew, used
+every trick of navigational skill he had ever learned. Nonetheless it
+was twenty-eight days before the little ship hung in the air over the
+Agronian capital.</p>
+
+<p>His heart sank. On the space-field, in neat ranks, the Vininese
+space-fleet was drawn up in proud review. The planet had fallen!
+Dirrul made his decision instinctively.</p>
+
+<p>The Space-dragon wheeled and swept low over the field, its vicious
+guns blazing. The yellow clouds of destruction swept up toward the
+sky&mdash;the little ship was caught in the blazing flame. The
+interplanetary freight sheds loomed ahead. And the world exploded,
+falling apart into a soothing painless silence.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Dirrul opened his eyes and looked at the neutral blue of a hospital
+ceiling. Gradually he became conscious of Dr. Kramer, seated by the
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Kramer!" Dirrul whispered. "Then everything's all right."</p>
+
+<p>"If by everything you mean your companions, yes. There's even a chance
+we can restore the girl's hearing."</p>
+
+<p>"And the Vininese?"</p>
+
+<p>"Defeated."</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Kramer, we've got to destroy the Confederacy! I saw their
+transmitters&mdash;I know how their system works."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Edward&mdash;I promised not to excite you. We know about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then how could you have been foolish enough to let them land?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seemed a pity not to give a few of their people another chance.
+It's working out quite nicely too."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't follow you, Dr. Kramer."</p>
+
+<p>"Long ago we became interested when tourists told us about the curious
+block-buildings on Vinin. Our physics boys worked out an ingenious
+device for analyzing their atmosphere. It was a little machine
+concealed in the lining of an ordinary air-freight crate, as I recall.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"A machine is quite objective, Edward&mdash;and Customs men don't stamp
+freight crates with the negative adaptors. When we learned that a
+Vininese fleet was going to land here we simply issued insulating
+helmets to all our people and let them come. As soon as we destroyed
+their portable transmitters the Vininese army proved quite adaptable
+to a new environment."</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;I did nothing to help when I destroyed their fleet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately you wounded two of our mechanics."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a traitor, Dr. Kramer. Even when I try I can't redeem myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Only on Vinin can you betray an external absolute, Edward. To an
+Agronian all objective concepts are relative to the subjective
+interpretations made by each individual. You can only be a traitor to
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"The words are pleasant to say to a sick man but the fact remains&mdash;I
+would have betrayed Agron."</p>
+
+<p>"But you didn't. Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I saw what their efficiency really meant&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You changed your mind before you knew about the transmitters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you're libeling yourself. Don't trap yourself in another
+self-delusion, Edward. All that's happened is that you've grown up."</p>
+
+<p>Dirrul said slowly, feeling for words that would express the idea as
+he felt it, "When I was in the center of the galaxy, looking out on
+space, I almost grasped a new concept but I lost it when the Agronian
+patrol attacked me. It's coming back.</p>
+
+<p>"Time and space seem to be one and the same. Neither exists as an
+objective reality. There is no past and no future&mdash;all of it occurs
+eternally in the instant of my own being. I am everything and
+nothing&mdash;infinity and a speck lost in space."</p>
+
+<p>"Thus you discover the Rational Potential," Dr. Kramer smiled. "I
+think you're ready for the space-pilot promotional, Edward." After a
+pause Dr. Kramer inquired, "Did you see the Chief of Vinin, Edward?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you know about that too?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've guessed&mdash;it seems likely."</p>
+
+<p>"I scraped off the putty and the face color. Beneath it he was an
+Earthman. A hundred thousand of them rule the Confederacy."</p>
+
+<p>"All time and space, forever occurring for each of us in the instant
+of now! Yes, he would be an Earthman, Edward&mdash;quite logically. Both
+good and evil begin with the same source. Both have the same Rational
+Potential. The act of being has always been the same struggle of
+constant forces, between the absolute and the relative. The time never
+changes nor the event but merely the passing illusion of place."</p>
+
+<p>Shaking his head the chubby professor departed. Dirrul closed his
+eyes, at peace with himself.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Instant of Now, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.
+
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+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Instant of Now, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Instant of Now
+
+Author: Irving E. Cox, Jr.
+
+Release Date: March 15, 2010 [EBook #31651]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSTANT OF NOW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+    This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe Aug-Sept 1953.
+    Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+    copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+[_One of the most intriguing of all science fiction patterns
+  is that of the galactic sweep--the story which takes for granted human
+  travel between stars at speeds far faster than the speed of light. In
+  its most successful form, such a story combines cosmic action with a
+  wholly human plot. In this case Mr. Cox--but read it yourself._]
+
+
+                          the instant of now
+
+
+                     _by ... Irving E. Cox, Jr._
+
+
+     Revolution is not necessarily a noble thing. Unless shrewdly
+     directed, its best elements may fall victim to its basest
+     impulses.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Eddie Dirrul had destroyed the message seconds after reading it. Yet,
+as he left the pneumotube from the University, he felt as if it were
+burning a hole in his pocket. It had come to him from Paul Sorgel, the
+new top-agent from the Planet Vinin. It had been written in High
+Vininese.
+
+For a moment the alien language had slowed Eddie's reaction to its
+contents, as had the shocking nature of its words. It had read--
+
+     _Need your help. Glenna and Hurd in brush with Secret
+      Police--both hurt. Come at once._
+
+Luckily old Dr. Kramer had asked no awkward questions when Eddie
+excused himself from the balance of the lecture. If the kindly
+bumbling professor had been inquisitive, Eddie had no idea how he
+would have answered. Glenna was his fiancee, Hurd his best friend--and
+their disaster meant disaster for the underground movement that had
+become the guiding purpose of his entire life.
+
+The night was still young when he emerged from the pneumotube and the
+slanting ramp-lines of windows in the massive unit-blocks of the
+Workers' Suburb rose about him within the darkness of the structural
+frames that encased them.
+
+Parks, recreation centers and gaudy amusement halls were aswirl with
+the usual evening crowds. With a sort of angry heedlessness Eddie
+forced his way among tall perpetually-youthful men in bright leisure
+clothing--and consciously alluring women clad in filmy garments as
+teasingly transparent as mist.
+
+_Glenna hurt--and Hurd!_ Seriously, of course, or Paul Sorgel would
+never have risked a hand-message. With quiet desperation he pushed
+through the crowds--in his trim grey Air-command uniform he was one
+with them, a nonentity like themselves.
+
+He knew where to find the three he sought. Beyond the outdoor courts,
+where his fellow-Agronians amused themselves with a variety of
+racquet-games, lay a tiny park, wherein a state of wild disorder was
+carefuly maintained in imitation of nature.
+
+Few were attracted by its rugged growth, save in very warm weather,
+when hardy souls ventured within its borders to relax in artificial
+breezes created by silent concealed fans. In its center stood a small
+stone building that housed the maintenance machinery. It was deserted,
+except for once each year when the city engineering crews came to
+check the machines and to make minor repairs. There the Libero-Freedom
+Movement held its meetings, in the shadow of the whirring wheels.
+
+Sorgel came out of the shadows as Dirrul pushed through the thicket of
+brush that surrounded the stone building. In a hushed whisper he
+asked, "That you, Eddie?"
+
+"Yes--where are they?"
+
+"Inside. I gave them a hypo--they're both under now. It makes it
+easier."
+
+"How did it happen, Paul?"
+
+"I was to meet Glenna and Hurd at her apartment, to talk over the
+details of the Plan. The police were there ahead of me but I broke up
+the party before they could finish the job. Since they've got to do
+this sort of thing unofficially, to be able to deny it later if any
+questions are asked, I scared them off easily enough. I brought Glenna
+and Hurd here in my Unicyl but I'll need your help to get them out."
+
+"This is the second time it's happened, Paul!" said Eddie. "And the
+Plan--we'll have to organize all over again. As soon as our people
+hear about this most of them will run like scared rabbits."
+
+"Not if they don't know, Eddie. That's where you come in. We've got to
+get Glenna and Hurd away from Agron. If there's no evidence of a crime
+there's no reason for an investigation."
+
+"But what can I do?"
+
+"Borrow one of the Air-command's surface jets for a while."
+
+Paul Sorgel's plan was simple and efficient. The Air-Command field was
+fenced with electronic paralysis barriers and the entrance was heavily
+guarded. But no watch was kept inside the encampment except for a
+daily inspection of the machines when the guard was changed at dawn.
+Since Dirrul was a Captain of the Space-maintenance Division, 73rd
+Air-Command Wing, he was able to enter the area at any time without
+question. Among the scheduled night training flights for new cadets,
+the departure of one more surface jet would pass unobserved.
+
+"Come back here for Glenna and Hurd," Sorgel said, "and take them out
+to the South Desert. If there's no hitch you should be back before
+dawn, with time to spare. If not...." Sorgel shrugged. "Eddie, we
+can't build a better universe without taking occasional risks."
+
+Slowly Dirrul's body tensed with fear. In a cold dead voice he asked,
+"Am I to leave them there, without help or medicine, to die of thirst
+and hunger?"
+
+"Many sacrifices are necessary for the good of the Movement."
+
+"But Glenna and Hurd are our leaders!"
+
+"The freedom of the universe means a little more, I think, than the
+temporary safety of two individuals." Sorgel lit a cigarette. In the
+faint pink reflection of the Glo-Wave lighter his face was emptily
+placid, a faint smile twisting the corners of his lips. "Suppose I say
+it's a command, Dirrul--a Vininese command, calling for Vininese
+discipline."
+
+After a moment Dirrul replied in a choked whisper, "I'll take them,
+sir."
+
+Sorgel smiled and the crisp tone of authority edged out of his voice.
+"As a matter of fact, Eddie, I was curious to see what you would do.
+The Vininese Confederacy practises neither cruelty nor deception.
+You'll find one of our Space-dragons hidden in a gorge of the Katskain
+Range. It's the ship I came in a week ago.
+
+"The pilot was instructed to wait fifteen planetary revolutions in the
+event that I might have a report to send back to Headquarters. You
+must learn to trust me, Eddie. From the first, you see, I intended to
+send Glenna and Hurd to Vinin. If they get there in time there's a
+chance our Medical Corps can pull them through. They may even be back
+here with us for the day when we carry out the Plan."
+
+Dirrul was in no real danger. Much as it benefited the Movement the
+laxity of Agronian security was one of the chief reasons why Dirrul
+scorned the Planetary Union. The space-wide patrols of the
+Air-Command, the city guards and the electronic paralysis barricades
+created a feeling of internal control--but it was all a glittering
+sham. If it were not for the Nuclear Beams the whole system would long
+since have crumbled under the first pressure from outside.
+
+With no difficulty he picked up Glenna and Hurd and took them to the
+South Desert, where he put them aboard the sleek Vininese space-ship.
+It was one of the new Dragon design--compact, efficient, faster than
+anything built by the Planetary Union, protected by sixteen circular
+batteries and yet small enough to be handled by one man.
+
+Dirrul had seen only one other Vininese Space-dragon and that from a
+distance at the Agronian commercial airport, when the last Vininese
+ambassador arrived. Technically there was no reason why Paul Sorgel
+could not have landed there as well, except that the Customs
+questionnaire might have proved embarrassing.
+
+Twenty years earlier, when Dirrul was still a schoolboy, the Galactic
+War had ended. Since that time relations between the Planetary Union
+and the Vininese Confederacy had steadily improved--at least in
+appearance. Undoubtedly there were commercial interests on both sides
+anxious to maintain peace and in recent years the quantity of goods in
+trade had grown enormously. But it was a truce, not a peace--a
+compromise, rather than a victory--forced on the galaxy when the
+scientists of the Planetary Union discovered the Nuclear Beams.
+
+Pain shot through Dirrul's mind as he carried Glenna into the
+pressurized chamber under the control room. She and Hurd were still
+unconscious but Glenna turned in his arms and her eyes fluttered open.
+She looked at him and screamed in terrible agony before the pilot of
+the Space-dragon plunged a hypodermic sedative into her arm.
+
+"It is better," he said to Dirrul in throaty Vininese. "So beautiful a
+one should not feel the pain." Carefully he fastened the needlepoint
+of a wall tube into Glenna's vein and another into Hurd's.
+
+"Synthetic blood feeding," he said with a smile. "It will keep them
+alive, perhaps even permitting minor wounds to heal, until I deliver
+them to the authorities on Vinin. You see, sir, my little ship is
+well-equipped." He slammed the round door of the hospital room shut
+and led Dirrul to the control blister.
+
+"How long will it be, this trip to Vinin?" Dirrul asked, speaking very
+slowly in classical Vininese. Like everyone in the Movement he had
+studied the language of Vinin as a sort of courtesy and duty but he
+had no illusion about his small ability to handle it.
+
+"In terms of your time," the pilot said, "about thirty days."
+
+"Only thirty? The Planetary Union hasn't a ship that could make it
+under sixty!"
+
+"But this is a Space-dragon." The words were self-explanatory.
+
+Proudly the pilot showed Dirrul the controls, as functional and as
+uncomplex as the cool clean lines of the ship herself. The design was
+so logical, so basically simple, that within a few minutes Dirrul
+understood enough of the mechanism to have driven the ship himself.
+
+"Your scientists could do as well," the pilot suggested, "if they
+wished."
+
+"Not mine," Dirrul said.
+
+"Pardon--the scientists of the Planetary Union. On Vinin we create for
+the future, for the progress of the Confederacy. We have no patience
+with petty argument, tedious experimentation or the pointless
+splitting of hairs that seems to occupy so much of your time here. For
+us a scientist is a producer, like everyone else. If he fails to do
+his job we replace him."
+
+Pleased with the comparison the pilot chuckled over his dials as he
+turned on the power. Above the roar he said to Dirrul, "We must talk
+again one day, sir. If you ever have the good fortune to come to Vinin
+be sure to look me up."
+
+
+II
+
+As the Vininese ship shot smoothly out into the night sky, Dirrul's
+surface jet slashed back toward the Agronian capital. A synthetic
+tension, which he deliberately fed with nightmare improbabilities,
+kept him reasonably alert until he had safely returned the jet to its
+place in the compound. Then weariness engulfed him. Groggily he
+staggered to the pneumotube and within five minutes he was asleep in
+the small two-room worker's apartment where he lived.
+
+The insistent _ping_ of the door visiscope woke him. Dirrul glanced at
+his wall clock and saw that it was still early morning. He had slept
+less than three hours. Swearing angrily he turned down the visiarm.
+Dr. Kramer's serene aging white-bearded face was mirrored on the
+grey-tinted screen.
+
+"Good morning, Edward," Kramer said with excessive cheerfulness. "For
+a moment I was afraid I had missed you. I've brought a transcription
+of the lecture you missed yesterday."
+
+Dirrul swung out of bed and pushed the entry release. Soundlessly the
+thin metal door slid into the wall and the little professor bounced
+into the room. The door shot back into place.
+
+"But you're not dressed!" the professor exclaimed without the
+slightest regret. "I always supposed you Air-Command men had to report
+for work at eight."
+
+"Yesterday I was out on emergency call," Dirrul said dully. "For
+twelve hours, so I've the morning off. I had planned to pound the
+pillow until--"
+
+"Good! We can talk, then. I don't have a class until ten and I always
+like to make the personal acquaintance of my students." Dr. Kramer
+made himself comfortable in Dirrul's Cloud-foam lounge, clasping his
+small, white hands over the little bulge of his belly. "Nice apartment
+you have here, Edward--excellent taste in furnishing."
+
+"You don't mind if I shave and dress and have a bite of breakfast, Dr.
+Kramer?" Dirrul's sarcasm was quite lost on the professor.
+
+"Do, by all means," Kramer said. "And you might order a pot of coffee
+for me."
+
+Dirrul touched a button and the bed rolled up into the wall--another
+and the gleaming metal shower-room slid open. He stripped and bathed,
+setting the aquadial so that his body was pounded by a sharp rain of
+icy water. When he snapped it off the massage arms shot out, rubbing
+him dry with soft, plastic puffs. He sprayed the newly patented
+No-Beard Mist on his face and, after waiting the required three
+seconds, wiped it off with a disposable fiber towel. The skin was
+pink and clean, refreshingly invigorated. When he took a fresh uniform
+out of the wall-press and put it on he felt very much himself again,
+scarcely annoyed by his lack of sleep.
+
+He pushed the button and the bathroom rolled out of sight. The whole
+process had taken less than five minutes.
+
+At his panel-control Dirrul dialed a sizable breakfast for himself and
+coffee for the professor. Before he could draw up chairs the
+grey-topped table had rolled from its wall slot, the steaming food
+containers fixed to it.
+
+"The marvels of invention!" Dr. Kramer said. "When I was young we had
+nothing like this. Many times, Edward, I had to prepare my own
+meals--and mighty skimpy ones they were too, some of them. A young
+teacher in those days wasn't paid very much."
+
+"You survived, Dr. Kramer," Dirrul reminded him dryly. "A little work
+now and then wouldn't hurt us, either."
+
+"That's the old argument, Edward. How we frothed and stewed over it
+when this new system was in its infancy! That was before your time, of
+course." Kramer poured a cup of coffee and after a thoughtful
+hesitation quietly took a slice of toast from Dirrul's platter. "They
+said we'd create a race of helpless children--defenseless lazy
+softies. They said if the individual wasn't forced to fight for his
+own survival, for the small comforts of life, he would die of boredom,
+drown initiative in luxury."
+
+Dr. Kramer smiled--and took another slice of toast. "Like so many of
+the terrifying predictions of the Cassandras none of it came to pass.
+Today we're stronger and more vigorous than ever. Today we have more
+new inventions, more new discoveries, more fine philosophical insight
+than ever before in our entire history.
+
+"Actually what we did was save time on the trivial routines so we
+could spend our work-potential where it mattered. After all, what was
+gained by a social system that forced me to spend so much of my energy
+feeding and housing and clothing myself? Weigh the loss against the
+greater contribution I might have made if I had spent the same time in
+research."
+
+"Why, yes, Dr. Kramer--you could have given us the Cloud-foam lounge a
+generation earlier," Dirrul said bitterly, "or perhaps the Safe-sweet
+candy."
+
+Again his sarcasm lost its savor, for the professor simply beamed and
+said, "Possibly, if that had been my field of interest. As it happens
+I'm a psychologist specializing in emotive linguistics--the
+symbologies for conveying meanings." The professor smiled.
+
+"Our present vigor and strength, no doubt, is reflected in the sort of
+thing we do with all this extra time our gadgets give us--the
+scholarly research in the Arena or the Phonoview."
+
+"You're being very uncritical, Edward. Under any social form a great
+majority of the people would spend everything on personal pleasures.
+Why not? Each generation produces only a few leaders--we simply
+recognize that fact and adjust to it."
+
+"But without the incentive of personal gain, Dr. Kramer...."
+
+The professor laughed uproariously. "Incentive! You amaze me, Edward.
+I haven't heard the word used in just that context since I was a boy.
+You're a throwback--an anachronism. You sound like one of the elderly
+prophets of doom. I thought the breed had died out generations ago."
+The professor laughed again. "So our system creates no incentives.
+Tell me, Edward, why are you spending your Work-Equivs to take my
+night course?"
+
+"Because, when I've passed enough university hours I can take the
+promotional test and become a full-fledged space-pilot."
+
+"And still you say there's no incentive?"
+
+"For myself, yes--but all of us ought to have the same kind of drive,"
+said Dirrul.
+
+"Such a condition never existed, Edward. Always there have been a few
+to make the inventions and the discoveries, a few to create the new
+dreams and frame the new ideas. Our people are no different. Incentive
+comes from within the individual--it cannot be imposed from the
+outside.
+
+"The poorest sort of incentive, therefore, is economic need. Our
+system provides all our people with the basic necessities for everyday
+living. Some few of us are content with these and never want anything
+else. But the great majority work to earn Work-Equivs, which they can
+spend as they please--on amusement, luxury, education or the races at
+the Arena.
+
+"Whatever the goal, it is a personal goal, set by each individual for
+himself. It's the only kind of incentive that makes any sense. Take
+yourself as an example--you spend your share of Work-Equivs on
+additional education because you want to become a space-pilot. By the
+time you've earned the promotion you'll have lifted yourself to a
+position of leadership.
+
+"As you are well aware the space-pilot is the politician--statesman is
+a better word--of the Planetary Union. Through his ingenuity, his
+skill with languages, his psychological understanding of diverse
+racial groups, he holds our planets and peoples together, in one union
+with a common social philosophy. Think how frustrating it would be if
+you could never move toward your goal, Edward, because everything you
+earned had to be spent on trivialities--food, clothing, a place to
+live."
+
+"All right," said Eddie doubtfully, "I have an apartment given to me
+but it has to be here in a worker's block. If our system provides for
+us all alike, as you imply, how is it you have accommodations in the
+Scientist's Center? Why should you be set apart? Or the poets and
+writers? Or the space-pilots, for that matter?"
+
+"But there's no difference in the way we live, Edward. In general
+people who do similar work and have similar interests are happier if
+they share the same social environment. The average person, living in
+a worker's block, would feel terribly out of place in a scientist's
+center, just as I would develop terrific frustrations if I had to live
+with the mystics or the religious orders."
+
+Dirrul deftly snatched the last piece of toast as the professor
+reached for it. "I'll dial some for you if you like," he offered.
+
+"Oh, no, Edward! I'm dieting, you see, and I like to think--well, as
+I've told you so often in class, we all practise self-deception of a
+sort. Usually it's harmless--and almost always we symbolize it in
+words. For me the symbol is diet.
+
+"I set up a specialized definition and convince myself that I am
+dieting if I never directly order fattening food. That gives me an
+escape hatch. If food is offered to me or if it happens to--ah--to
+fall into my hands, I can take it and still keep a clear conscience."
+
+"Perhaps you practise more self-deception than you know, Dr. Kramer,"
+said Eddie. "For instance, all your fine words about the strength and
+vitality of our new system--when I was a boy we licked the Vininese
+Confederacy. We couldn't do it today."
+
+"That's a matter of opinion. We're at peace now and we'll remain so."
+
+"Only because we have the Nuclear Beams. And look how we've botched
+that mess! Our scientists gave the process to the Vininese in order to
+patch together a peace when we could have destroyed their civilization
+completely."
+
+"And our own too--with the weight of such a crime on our group
+conscience. There's one thing you still must learn, Edward--scientific
+progress is made by the sharing of ideas, not the concealment of them.
+We build the future upon the truths of the past and the present. If
+some of those truths are hidden away we create falsely on utterly
+false foundations."
+
+Dr. Kramer pulled a manila envelope from his pocket and laid it on the
+table, pushing back his chair. "I must go, Edward; these are the notes
+on my lecture. As I told you before, I really came here for something
+else. I wanted to talk to you, to get to understand you better. I
+think I've learned a great deal."
+
+The little professor was no longer smiling and the gentle touch of
+banter was gone from his voice. Dirrul felt a creeping fear rise
+within him. How much had he unconsciously revealed? How many of his
+own beliefs had Dr. Kramer been able to read between the lines?
+
+Knowing them, would he guess Dirrul's connection with the Movement?
+The professor's bland naivete could be the mask of a police informer.
+Dirrul shivered, remembering the sudden punishment that had overtaken
+Glenna and Hurd.
+
+At the door Dr. Kramer paused and said, "I'm entertaining two or three
+of the university faculty this evening, Edward. They've read some of
+the papers you have written for my class. I'd like to have you meet
+them. My apartment--eight-thirty."
+
+It was a command rather than an invitation. Dirrul accepted.
+
+
+III
+
+As soon as the professor had gone his fear vanished. What he had said
+to Dr. Kramer gave away no secrets and, in any case, he was crediting
+the professor with a perception he did not have. Ever since first
+joining the Movement, when he was still in school, Dirrul had taken
+such pains to conceal his motives that it would have required a good
+deal more than Dr. Kramer's clumsy prying to reveal them.
+
+He had deliberately patterned his attitudes and habits upon a
+composite average, even to a mild and starry-eyed criticism of the
+system which was more or less expected from the ambitious young men of
+the Air-command.
+
+Dr. Kramer's ecstatic praise of the system was the typical emotional
+reaction of the older generation. The professor may actually have been
+convinced of the truth of his own fuzzy propaganda. It was that sort
+of blind faith which still held the Planetary Union together.
+
+Before returning to the Air-Command base at noon, Dirrul sought out
+Paul Sorgel and reported that Glenna and Hurd were safely on their way
+to Vinin. Apologetically, he mentioned Dr. Kramer's invitation,
+expecting to elicit Sorgel's scorn. Instead the Vininese agent was
+enthusiastic.
+
+"Wonderful, Eddie!" he said. "Engineer it so they'll ask you back.
+We've never got one of our people in with the older science crowd
+before. Feel them out--we might pick up some converts. I won't need
+you at the next few meetings of the Movement--they'll be largely
+reorganizational, you know. I've been reading over Glenna's notes on
+the Plan. With one or two modifications we should be able to carry it
+out."
+
+At eight-thirty that evening Dirrul was admitted to Dr. Kramer's
+apartment. He was neither overwhelmed by the professor's excessive
+courtesy nor impressed by the other guests. They were from the faculty
+of the Advanced Air University, elderly, respected and distinguished,
+names known for a generation everywhere in the Planetary Union.
+
+To them, Edward Dirrul was merely a curiosity, a live specimen mounted
+for analysis. He had criticised their system. They intended to wring
+out the strands of his motivation, classify them, speculate and
+theorize upon them--and perhaps, ultimately, do the whole thing up as
+a monograph.
+
+Dirrul knew why Kramer had selected him for study rather than any of
+the current crop of university students who held similar views. A
+product of the educational philosophy of the Planetary Union, Dirrul
+was thoroughly adjusted and decidedly aware of both his own abilities
+and shortcomings.
+
+He was, first of all, gifted in the use of abstractions and
+generalities. In rare combination with this flair he had superior
+mechanical intelligence and a talent for expressive verbalization. He
+dealt easily in the subtle skills of logic. If he set his mind to it,
+he could erect absolute proofs of diametrically opposed truths and few
+minds could detect the delicately concealed flaws in the reasoning.
+
+On the negative side of the scale was Dirrul's complete lack of
+psycho-biological intelligence, or a sense of scientific semantics.
+Neither to him seemed important. He missed them not at all and
+resented the legal requirements that forced him to take Dr. Kramer's
+course before he could qualify as a space-pilot.
+
+The papers he had written for the professor were beautifully
+constructed patterns of logic, cast in well-turned phrases. They had
+clarified the criticism which others put inarticulately. It was the
+precision of his argument that disturbed Dr. Kramer and his faculty
+friends.
+
+Dirrul was amused as the distinguished scientists skillfully
+manipulated the conversation to create counter-arguments opposing his.
+It was a game played in abstractions, a technique of which Dirrul was
+an instinctive master. Apparently the scientists found some sort of
+excitement in the game, since on succeeding evenings Dirrul was
+swamped with invitations from other faculty members--so many, in fact,
+that he had to neglect the serious work of the Movement. When he
+complained to Paul Sorgel, the Vininese agent was delighted.
+
+"We can get along without you for awhile, Eddie," Sorgel said. "You're
+doing something much more important. You have a real in with the
+science crowd, and you've got them on the run because your arguments
+make sense. Every doubt you sow in their minds now will make our work
+just that much easier when the proper time comes."
+
+Occasionally Dirrul had an uneasy feeling that he was making no real
+progress at all, that when he talked to the scientists he was a
+dancing puppet dangling on invisible strings. It seemed impossible
+that the scientists of the Ad-Air University could be so repeatedly
+defeated by his logic. Slowly, however, he reasoned his way to an
+explanation.
+
+The scientists, like the system itself, were in the last wild frenzy
+of a decaying social order. They had lived so long in the atmosphere
+of relative truths, they had so carefully schooled themselves to avoid
+all absolutes, that they were unable to elude the simplest processes
+of logic. Their very efforts to be objective made them too honest to
+reject a conclusion once Dirrul had demonstrated the careful structure
+that seemed to support it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A month passed. Dirrul felt divorced from the Movement, existing in
+suspended animation in a cloud of wordy unreality. Then abruptly the
+slow-moving dream ended. Late one night Paul Sorgel slipped into
+Dirrul's apartment and announced in an emotionless whisper, "The
+Plan's ready. You'll have to carry the details to Vinin. We can't use
+the teleray--the Union monitors might pick up the message and decode
+it."
+
+"Naturally our Vininese Headquarters will want to know, Paul," said
+Eddie, "but can't that wait? We'll need every man here when we--"
+
+Sorgel interrupted him. "I've made one or two changes in Glenna's
+original plan. It was too impractical. A handful of men can't take
+over half a galaxy."
+
+"Glenna and Hurd weren't after the entire Planetary Union,
+Paul--that's out of the question. We meant to liberate Agron first.
+The capital is here and for awhile the government would be disrupted.
+When the people on the other planets saw how much better our social
+organization had become, modeled on the Vininese system, they would
+stage their own revolutions just like ourselves."
+
+Sorgel laughed scornfully. "And in the meantime, of course, none of
+them would think of attacking you and throwing your people out?"
+
+"Not if we seized the Nuclear Beam Transmitters," said Dirrul, "no
+space-fleet could come near us then."
+
+"Eddie, you've lived in Agron too long. You're not thinking straight
+when you try to build the Plan around a single weapon."
+
+"Why not, Paul? It's a perfect defense. In less than thirty seconds
+the Beam Transmitters can charge the entire stratospheric envelope of
+Agron. Nothing can move through it without disintegrating, yet life on
+the surface of the planet would go on quite normally because the
+atmosphere serves as an insulation."
+
+"Technically it's a change in the form of energy, not a
+disintegration," Sorgel reminded him. "The beamed electrons unite with
+the atoms of visible material substances and alter them. I quite
+understand the process, Eddie--Vinin has the Beam too, you know."
+
+"Because the Agronian scientists gave you the specifications!"
+
+"That always has rankled, hasn't it?" said Sorgel.
+
+"Yes," Dirrul admitted. "If the Vininese scientists had discovered the
+Beam-reaction first they would have conquered the galaxy."
+
+"Conquer is a nasty word, Eddie," Sorgel said softly. "Vinin makes no
+conquests. Let's put it differently and say we would have used the
+Beam to bring peace to the galaxy instead of splitting it in two as it
+is now."
+
+"Glenna's Plan can change all that, at least here on Agron."
+
+"Face the facts, Eddie! A few conscientious people with ideals can't
+take over a planet. The Movement has its crews trained to capture the
+Beam Transmitters. You'll isolate Agron and seize the government
+offices simultaneously. What happens then?"
+
+"Our people will rise and join us," said Eddie. "We'll create a new
+government modeled on Vinin's and we'll have young leaders instead of
+murky thinkers like Dr. Kramer."
+
+"That's effective propaganda for speechmaking, but--"
+
+"Glenna pounded away at it too, Paul," said Eddie. "It was the most
+telling line in winning our new crop of recruits."
+
+"Which is precisely why the police disposed of her. But it won't work.
+The people won't rise. A mob is lethargic, too willing to keep things
+as they are. Here on Agron you've been coddled too long with luxuries
+and easy living. You have to prod the mob awake with a shock-force, a
+force coming from the outside."
+
+"How, Paul? We haven't enough people in the Movement to put on any
+real show of strength. We can't even get outside."
+
+"Now you understand the changes I've made in Glenna's Plan. You people
+in the Movement will seize the Beam Transmitters as originally
+planned. Then you'll simply hold them and keep them decommissioned
+long enough for a Vininese space-fleet to land. We'll set up your new
+government for you."
+
+"And the rest of the Planetary Union will go to war!"
+
+"It hardly matters," said Paul. "Once we're here the Beams will
+protect us against counterattack and every planet in the Vininese
+Confederacy has the same defense. One by one we can liberate the
+planets of the Union in the same way. But the timing is vital, of
+course--that's why you have to go to Vinin."
+
+"I had a vacation leave only three months ago. I can't get tourist
+passage now without--"
+
+"I've considered that. You'll have to have your own space-ship."
+
+"Now wait a minute, Paul! It's one thing to borrow a surface jet but a
+space-cruiser...!"
+
+"A cruiser, yes--not an old cargo ship. And you can handle that
+without a crew."
+
+"It can't be done, Paul." Dirrul held his Glo-Wave nervously to the
+end of a cigarette. "Besides, I want to think this through carefully
+before I make up my mind."
+
+"A merchant ship made a crash landing at Barney's emergency field
+yesterday," said Paul. "The damage was slight, but the pilot--unfortunately
+the pilot is dead." Sorgel smiled enigmatically. "Barney's one of our best
+men. He's been on the lookout for a chance like this for weeks.
+
+"You'll leave tonight. Avoid the regular space lanes. I'm guessing
+you'll be on Vinin in a hundred days at the outside. On the fiftieth
+day after that--exactly one hundred and fifty days from now--our
+Vininese space-fleet must make a landing on Agron."
+
+"I'll be missed, Paul--they'll make inquiries."
+
+"And get no satisfactory answers."
+
+Pacing the floor, Dirrul asked tensely, "Does everyone in the Movement
+know about this?"
+
+"The vote was made unanimously yesterday."
+
+"One of the others must have a vacation leave coming up. Send him.
+We're not at war with Vinin. He could take one of the regular space
+excursions."
+
+"I can't send a message in writing. It would be picked up by the
+customs police. And you're the only one who can carry it verbally,
+Eddie. You know the whole background because you worked with Glenna
+and Hurd. You've been in the Movement longer than any of the others."
+
+"Why not go yourself, Paul?"
+
+"I can do more for the liberation if I stay here."
+
+"I wish I'd been at the meeting yesterday when the vote was taken. I'd
+have liked to discuss it with the others before--"
+
+"Why so many questions, Eddie? Why so many doubts all of a sudden?"
+Sorgel stood and faced Dirrul, holding his shoulders in a grip that
+hurt. "Are you trying to back out? Maybe it wasn't a good thing to let
+you play around with the science boys after all. Be honest with me,
+Eddie. If you're not sure where you stand, say so. There's no room in
+the Movement for traitors."
+
+When Dirrul said nothing Sorgel added in a voice that rang with
+fervor, "You're the only man in the Movement who has had any training
+as a space-pilot. It depends on you now--everything you've ever
+dreamed of, everything Glenna and Hurd wanted. Can you forget what the
+Agronian police did to Glenna? Is your courage any less than hers?"
+Again Sorgel paused but still Dirrul said nothing. "The future of your
+world depends on you, Eddie--don't let it down."
+
+"I'll go," Dirrul whispered.
+
+As Eddie made up his mind his internal tension relaxed and he was
+filled with a sense of well-being. When he thought about it he
+couldn't understand why he had hesitated--unless perhaps what Sorgel
+suggested was true--that his contact with the Ad-Air faculty had
+blunted and nearly perverted his established sense of values.
+
+An hour later Dirrul boarded the battered antiquated space cargo
+carrier on the launching rack at Barney's emergency field. At the last
+minute Sorgel pressed a curious disk into his hand. Made of a very
+light metal and suspended from a short chain it was two inches in
+diameter and covered with a complex grid design.
+
+"Put it around your neck before you land, Eddie. Don't remove under
+any circumstances until you report. Give it to the Chief then. He'll
+know I sent you because it's my own identification activator." Sorgel
+clasped Dirrul's hand warmly. "When you land on Vinin take the North
+Field below the capital. It's the HQ operational center. Use Wave-code
+three-seven-three and they'll know you're friendly."
+
+
+IV
+
+After the launching space-flight was normally a monotonous routine.
+The course was charted by automatic navigators and the vast pattern of
+interlocking machinery and safety devices was electronically
+controlled by robot relays from the pilot master-panel. The chief
+function of a trained space-pilot, aside from his services as a
+diplomat, was to handle emergency situations for which automatic
+responses could not be built into the machinery.
+
+Dirrul, however, could not depend a great deal upon the robot devices.
+He had to avoid the well-traveled and well-charted commercial
+space-lanes. He had to be constantly on the alert for the telltale
+white of a police cruiser. A cargo carrier was the slowest ship in the
+universe--Dirrul could outrun nothing, not even a playboy's sport
+jalopy, and inspection by the customs police would have been
+disastrous.
+
+He followed a roundabout route, keeping as far from inhabited planets
+as he could, and he made good time. In ninety-five days he had reached
+the mythical border in space, which divided the territory of the
+Planetary Union and the Vininese Confederacy.
+
+He was almost at midpoint in the galaxy. On the glazed screen of his
+space-map the mirrored pinpricks of sun systems glittered like
+microscopic gems scattered over the curve of a gigantic black saucer.
+Dirrul had never been so far from Agron. He felt a stifling sense of
+insignificance.
+
+The meaning of time as he understood it was somehow overwhelmed by the
+immensity of space. Now and yesterday, today and tomorrow, became a
+single unity. Dirrul had a new sense of the past in terms of the
+present. His mind groped for word symbols that he understood which
+could crystalize the shadowy new concept filling his mind.
+
+New understanding seemed to arise from the space-map. Somewhere among
+the glowing points of light was the Place of the Beginning, a single
+planet called Earth. In the far-distant past Earthmen had made
+themselves rational beings. But for centuries thereafter they had made
+no further progress, apparently appalled by the audacity of such
+presumptive evolution. They had fought through a long primitive period
+of violence, erecting system on system and philosophy upon philosophy
+to conceal, destroy and wipe out their own biological machinery.
+
+Then out of a final orgy of death and terror the Earthmen had grasped
+the meaning and the responsibility of the Rational Potential. They had
+understood the reality of being.
+
+Within a century after that they had conquered space. They had found
+peoples like themselves occasionally--but more often races that had
+followed different biological adaptations to different environments.
+Wherever there seemed to be a spark of primitive rationality the
+Earthmen had stayed and patiently taught the Rational Potential of
+being, which they had learned for themselves only after such
+bloodshed.
+
+The galaxy was theirs, in a sense, for it thought in the patterns of
+Earthmen, although long ago their direct influence had waned. They
+were a legend and an ideal, lost in the vastness of space, yet bound
+fast into the cultures of all peoples.
+
+Yet somewhere the Earthmen must have failed, somewhere there must have
+been a flaw in their teaching. Fifty years earlier, as the Agronians
+measured time, the galaxy had been torn apart by war. The Agronians
+had led one group of planets, the Vininese another. Planet after
+planet was seared by deadly new weapons--world after world died in the
+orange flame of gaudy atomic disintegration. Slowly the power of Vinin
+crept across the sky until the Vininese ruled half the galaxy.
+
+Their first defeat had come unexpectedly. Their great space-armada
+swung in on Agron, while the people crowded in terror in their flimsy
+raid shelters. But the Vininese ships had vanished high in the air.
+Not even debris had fallen on the planet.
+
+It was the first use of the Nuclear Beams. Dirrul had been a schoolboy
+when the Agronian scientists announced their discovery. He remembered
+the exciting thrill of pride, recalled how he and his schoolmates had
+dreamed of destroying the Vininese with the new weapon.
+
+He remembered too the galling bitterness he had felt when the
+scientists announced that they had made peace instead.
+
+They had had sound reasons, of course. They said the Beams had a
+limited value. They could be used only defensively to girdle a single
+planet in the stratospheric level of its atmosphere. Elsewhere they
+were harmless. To compound the spectacular timidity, the scientists
+had given away the secret to all comers, including the Vininese. They
+had an argument for that particular idiocy too--if each planet could
+protect itself so easily from all external attack its people could
+freely decide for themselves their galactic allegiance or maintain
+isolated independence.
+
+The Planetary Union had been formed and members of the Vininese
+Confederacy invited to join it. Not a people anywhere in the
+Confederacy made even tentative exploration of the offer while five
+sun systems of the Union later joined the Vininese. That was the fact
+that had ultimately prodded Dirrul into joining the Movement.
+
+Later, when he read the pamphlets brought from Vinin, he had clarified
+his purposes. On the one hand lay the waste, the confusion, the
+uncertainty of Agron. Scientists who talked forever of hypotheses and
+were afraid to stand firm for any absolute truths--moralists who
+qualified even the simplest standards of right and wrong--philosophers
+who glorified a condition of eternal chaos which they called an open
+mind.
+
+On the other hand lay the clean efficiency of Vinin. Scientific
+certainty, and the progress that stemmed from it--the Space-dragon
+instead of the Safe-sweet candy, a clear social organization in which
+the individual was directed by established and inflexible principles.
+
+The whole of it was history as Dirrul had learned it, the chronology
+of the past. As he looked on the star map of the galaxy, at midpoint
+between the two great unions of planets, the meaning of the past began
+to change. The chronology fell into a new perspective.
+
+Against the vast expanse of space time twisted into a new
+relationship. Time and space began to equate with an exciting
+synonymity. History was not the past, dead and numbered--history was
+now. All things, all space, all time, were forever fixed at the
+instant of now.
+
+In Dirrul's mind a tumult of facts trembled on the verge of a
+startling new order--the atomic structure of all energy and the black
+saucer of the galaxy. The violent spasms the Earthmen had suffered
+before they found the Rational Potential and the devastation of the
+Galactic War.
+
+But before he could assess such new values and verbalize the new
+generalization the antiquated warning system of his ship twanged
+tinnily. On the control panel screen he saw the trim outline of a
+white Agronian police ship. A moment later the voice came over the
+speaker, ordering him to state his permit registry and his
+destination.
+
+Dragged so suddenly back to reality, Dirrul reacted in panic. It was a
+routine inquiry. He might have bluffed his way clear. Instead he put
+the cargo ship at top speed toward Vinin and watched helplessly while
+the patrol cruiser closed relentlessly in.
+
+"Stand for search!" the voice commanded.
+
+When he did nothing the police shot a warning rocket over his bow. A
+second shot struck the rear of the cargo ship and tore away a section
+of landing gear. Swearing, Dirrul tried to maneuver out of range, and
+to a certain extent he was successful. But piloting skill could not
+make up for the cumbersome bulk of his unarmed ship. Two more blasts
+hit him, collapsing the forward compartment and knocking out one power
+tube.
+
+At the point of triumph, however, the police patrol turned away and
+left Dirrul limping alone in space. For a moment he was puzzled. In
+another ten minutes they could have boarded the cargo carrier and made
+him prisoner. But he understood when he glanced again at the star
+map--the Agronian police had pursued him far into Vininese territory.
+If Vininese patrols had found them there it might have created an
+unpleasant intergalactic incident.
+
+Dirrul made a quick survey of the damage. He had only one power tube
+intact--beyond that, the cargo carrier was wrecked and he had on board
+nothing with which to make repairs. He could move ahead only at
+quarter-speed.
+
+Sorgel had put a time limit of one hundred days on the trip to Vinin.
+Headquarters had to know by then of the Plan on Agron. Dirrul had five
+days left and as the hours ran out he was still grinding slowly toward
+the outer atmosphere of Vinin. Quite aware that proper security
+demanded the message be delivered in person, Dirrul nonetheless faced
+the alternative of losing everything if he waited.
+
+Logically weighing all factors, he concluded he would not be risking
+too much, considering the stakes, if he used the teleray. Agron
+monitors could pick it up, of course, and no doubt the outpost
+stations were instructed to record all messages emanating from within
+the territory of Vinin. But Dirrul knew the Air-Command.
+
+They wallowed in the same luxury and comfort enjoyed by the rest of
+the Planetary Union. Outposts personnel, so far from the capital,
+would be even less likely to take their duties seriously than Dirrul's
+own unit.
+
+He tried to make the information enigmatic to the curious and at least
+suggestive to the Vininese. He used the landing Wave-code 373. The
+small red light on the control panel glowed and he knew he had
+established contact. In carefully chosen Vininese he spoke into the
+teleray mouthpiece.
+
+"Sorgel requires help for Glenna-Hurd Plan. Exactly fifty days, their
+time."
+
+He repeated the message. As an afterthought he gave his own position
+and asked for emergency repair assistance. The whole meaning hinged
+upon the names of Glenna and Hurd. However, since they had been taken
+to Vinin, they should already have outlined the Plan to the Vininese
+command. If there were any doubts Headquarters could teleray for
+clarification. When his speaker remained silent Dirrul assumed he had
+been understood.
+
+He began to feel the pull of Vininese gravity, found himself in
+trouble with his ship. He tried to keep the disabled cargo carrier
+relatively stationary, so that the Vininese repair ships could locate
+him. With only one power tube, however, maneuver was impossible. The
+battered ship plunged out of control toward the planet.
+
+For an hour Dirrul fought with all the skill he knew. A thousand feet
+above the surface he managed to force the ship to level off
+temporarily. He had no time to seek a proper landing area and in any
+case his gear had been shot away.
+
+There was a wide flat plain directly below him, in the distance the
+towering mass of a large city silhouetted against a range of
+mountains. Dirrul headed his ship for the open fields, setting the
+safety devices for a crash landing.
+
+He hung around his neck the identification disk Sorgel had given him,
+tucking it beneath his tunic. If he were hurt in the landing, a
+Vininese might find him, and the disk would indicate that he was
+important enough to be taken to the Headquarters Command. If his
+teleray hadn't been understood there might still be a chance for him
+to make his report in person.
+
+The ship crashed against the hard ground. Dirrul felt a wrenching pain
+as the automatic safety arms pinioned him fast to cushion the fall,
+before hurling him free of the blazing control room. After that he
+lost consciousness.
+
+
+V
+
+When Dirrul opened his eyes it was after dark but the triple moons of
+Vinin were full and the landscape glowed with a yellowish light. He
+had fallen into a ditch which ran beside a narrow, green-paved road.
+In the distance, hidden in a dense copse of blue tree-like
+vegetation, he saw the fragments of his wrecked ship. The purple grass
+of Vinin spread richly all around him, damp and warm. At the bottom of
+the ditch a reddish trickle of liquid washed over his feet.
+
+His throat ached with thirst. His tongue clung like sand to the roof
+of his mouth. He knew that an Agronian could live in the Vininese
+atmosphere but he was uncertain whether his body could assimilate the
+native liquids. Yet to ease the torture he dipped his hand into the
+red fluid and rubbed a few drops over his lips. The sting of salt
+increased his torment.
+
+His body shuddered with pain as he pulled himself to his feet. He
+crept a few feet along the green highway, and slowly his will mastered
+his strength so that he could walk erect. He began to orient himself a
+little. On the horizon he saw the skyline of the city he had observed
+from the air and he knew he was following the road in the right
+direction.
+
+But the distance was greater than he had estimated. He walked for an
+hour and the city still seemed no closer. Nor had he seen any sign of
+habitation where he might go for help, nothing except the towering
+endless yellow stone wall which he had been following for more than
+half an hour. There was neither gate nor break in the stone. Atop the
+wall regularly spaced brackets held three naked wires in place.
+
+The wall probably guarded the estate of a Vininese official, he
+decided. In that case the wires were either a warning device or a
+charged trap against thieves. Dirrul was puzzled by the obvious
+deduction. Such things were necessary on Agron to protect important
+installations like the Beam Transmitters--but he had hardly expected
+there would be a need for them on Vinin. Yet when he considered it
+objectively, why not? Every system of society, no matter how ideal,
+would produce inevitable malcontents--there were fools among the
+Vininese, as there were among other peoples.
+
+Dirrul saw a towering gate in the wall and ran ahead eagerly, only to
+fall in disappointment against the thick metal grille. The gate was
+locked by a concealed device he could not locate. At a considerable
+distance inside the wall was a second, higher than the first. Dirrul
+saw a faint light at the inner gate and assumed there was a guard of
+some sort stationed there. He tried with all his strength to cry out
+for help but his throat was dust-dry. He could utter only a faint
+whisper.
+
+When he tried to go on he was overcome with exhaustion. He staggered a
+few feet beyond the gate and collapsed into the ditch. He lay face
+down in the warm purple grass, his swollen tongue hanging limply from
+his mouth. Imperceptibly the thirst began to diminish. After a
+moment's speculation Dirrul understood why and crushed a handful of
+the purple grass against his lips. It was warm and sweet--a comforting
+liquid began to flow down his throat. He plunged his head luxuriously
+into a thick mass of the weed, breathing deeply the sweet odor of the
+crushed blades.
+
+A silent grey vehicle darted along the green road and jerked to a stop
+in front of the gate. It came so quickly Dirrul had no time to call
+out. The Vininese driver stood up and bawled orders at the inner gate.
+A faint voice replied. The driver shouted again. The gate swung open
+and the vehicle moved inside.
+
+Bewildered, Dirrul sat up, his head reeling. He understood a little
+Vininese, not enough to translate exactly what had been said but
+enough to make out a tantalizing half-meaning. The driver was
+searching all the work camps, he had said, for the Agronian girl,
+Glenna. He wanted to check something or other to see if she were here.
+
+Work camp? Dirrul decided he must have got the word wrong. Glenna and
+Hurd might still be in hospitals but if they had recovered they would
+be honored citizens of Vinin. Still--what sort of hospital would have
+both double walls and alarm wires?
+
+Only an asylum for hopeless mental cases! The realization made Dirrul
+cold with a terrible fear. Glenna--hopelessly insane!
+
+To save the Movement it was vital for Dirrul to make his report
+immediately. What help could the Vininese get from a madwoman? He
+sprang up and ran dizzily to the gate. Before he could shout for the
+guard shadowy figures rose up around him, silently closing great hairy
+hands over his mouth and dragging him back across the road.
+
+Tied and gagged Dirrul watched while the black-robed creatures worked
+stealthily at the central bars of the gate with tiny blue-flaming
+torches. Beneath their flowing capes they were beings like himself,
+which indicated that they were either Agronian or Vininese, for by the
+perverse chance of biological adaptation the people of the two planets
+were so structurally similar that even intermarriage was possible. One
+by one they cut out the bars until the span in the gate was wide
+enough for them to work their way through.
+
+For a moment the band stood in the road, apparently talking. At least
+their lips moved and their hands fluttered expressively but Dirrul
+heard no sound. Reaching a decision they went through the gate in
+single file, carrying long vicious weapons with them. Two of the
+black-caped men came and stood guard on either side of Dirrul.
+
+Whatever these vandals were doing they were working in stealth and
+fear and Dirrul realized their aim must be illegal. He fought to break
+free of his bonds so that he might warn the loyal Vininese garrison.
+The two guards shoved him back roughly. One of them grabbed Dirrul's
+tunic in a claw grip and the cloth tore open, revealing Sorgel's
+identification disk.
+
+Both guards bent over him, fingering the disk, talking soundlessly
+with their facile fingers. Suddenly they jerked the disk off, snapping
+the chain. At the same moment a rolling explosion from within the
+wall shook the earth.
+
+Dirrul heard a great noise and a terrifying fear filled his mind. It
+was a steady undiminishing fear that gripped every muscle of his body.
+His throat was ice-cold. His heart pounded and gasped for breath.
+Every nerve-end in his body quivered and his imagination was swamped
+with a flood of shattering ephemeral horrors.
+
+Nothing could shake off the terror. Dirrul's skill with reason and
+logic failed him. It was impossible to organize his thinking to combat
+the sensory shock waves disrupting his thoughts. Logical patterns made
+no sense. The very process of trying to build meaning into them--the
+process of thinking itself--left him weak and trembling.
+
+The guards watched his terror for a moment, watched while he clung
+close to the ground, trying to dig his fingers into it. Then one of
+them laughed--a piercing discordant shriek, shrilling louder than the
+din behind the wall. The second man, snarling viciously, kicked Dirrul
+in the ribs.
+
+For Dirrul the blaze of pain was almost a relief. As his body
+responded to it on a level of instinct, the chattering terror in his
+mind diminished. A second blow on the head sent him reeling close to
+the brink of unconsciousness. His perceptive reactions went slightly
+out of focus.
+
+In a wavering mist he saw the black figures emerge from the gate,
+dragging a dozen or more captives with them. A second explosion rocked
+the earth and flames leaped high behind the yellow wall. In the glare
+Dirrul recognized Glenna, struggling frantically in the arms of her
+masked captor.
+
+Dirrul's memory after that was a vague patchwork of unrelated
+episodes. He saw huge saddled reptilian bipeds dragged out of the
+concealing brush. The captives were bound in the saddles and the
+black-robed figures mounted behind them. Later two of the men pulled
+Dirrul up and tied him across a saddle too.
+
+At a sickening gallop the caravan moved away from the green highway,
+striking out over the purple plain. For a while Dirrul lost rational
+control of sensation. He felt but without understanding. His brain
+pulsed in a continuous terror that seemed to resolve itself into
+sound--a continuous high-pitched scream coming from within his own
+mind. His body throbbed with pain and nausea wrenched emptily at the
+muscles of his stomach. But he could not sort out the feelings,
+classify them or adjust to them.
+
+At the edge of the plain the caravan turned up a steep rocky trail
+which led into the ragged range of mountains banked behind the
+Vininese city. They came to a stop in a stony ravine, concealed
+beneath a tangle of gigantic purple-leafed vines.
+
+Dirrul's captors dismounted and removed their black cloaks, hiding
+them among the rocks. Underneath they wore the warm gray skintight
+workers' clothing of Vinin. The majority left their animals tethered
+to the roots of the vine and began the steep descent on foot to the
+city. Only three remained behind to guard the prisoners.
+
+They built a small fire and prepared food, serving the hot sweet
+chunks of white meat in large wicker baskets. As soon as Dirrul
+discovered that he could stomach the food he wolfed his share
+hungrily. The guards brought him more. He felt better. Except for the
+sing-song ringing in his head he might have been able to think clearly
+enough to evaluate his own position.
+
+But that could be done later. He was overcome by an immense
+drowsiness. He relaxed and slept.
+
+
+VI
+
+A shrill scream woke him with a start of horror. His captors had taken
+him from his saddle and propped him against a mound of rocks, along
+with the other prisoners. His muscles were numb and dead, so limp it
+was almost impossible for him to turn his head. Faintly the whirring
+terror whispered in his mind.
+
+Dirrul's eyes focused slowly on the clearing. One of the prisoners had
+been carried there, close to the fire. It was Glenna. Two of her
+captors held her while the third bent over her head, probing her ear
+with a sharp instrument. His arm moved. Glenna screamed and fainted.
+For a moment Dirrul saw the side of her face smeared with a spreading
+stain of blood. Then nausea swept over him. When he opened his eyes
+again the three men were working over another prisoner at the fire.
+
+Vaguely Dirrul knew he had to escape. He forgot the Movement--he
+thought of nothing any loftier than his own personal survival. The
+idea was elemental, built upon the simplest sort of observation and
+hypothesis.
+
+Yet it came slowly and painfully, as if he had just tried to
+understand after one reading the Cranmor-Frasher Theory of Diminishing
+Corelatives. As he verbalized the conclusion two things happened--the
+drug-like languor in his muscles began to disperse and the shrilling
+note of terror burst up loud in his mind once more.
+
+Two of the men brought their last victim back from the fire and laid
+his body on the stones close to Dirrul. Dirrul feigned sleep when they
+stood over him. One of them prodded him with the tip of a dusty
+boot--then they both laughed.
+
+They went back to the fire and talked soundlessly to their companions,
+holding up the identification disk which had been ripped from Dirrul's
+neck hours before. That amused them briefly, until one of the three
+snatched the disk and hurled it toward the mouth of the ravine in
+violent anger.
+
+The three men pulled thick white skins together near the fire and
+crept into them. Dirrul waited until he was sure they slept. It was
+the only chance he would have to escape, but when he tried to creep
+away his hands collapsed from sheer terror. The crying fear in his
+mind was so loud his head seemed to vibrate physically with the
+sound.
+
+Thought was impossible. Judgment and decision were impossible. If he
+tried to consider even a problem as simple as the safest means of
+passing the dying fire--reason failed him. He could weigh nothing
+critically--he could not consider probable courses of rational action.
+
+Nonetheless he inched forward. It took all the courage and stamina he
+possessed. Gradually a strange and foggy understanding formed in his
+brain. The terror seemed to die if he planned nothing, merely
+responding without thought to the instinctive urge to escape. Let
+instinct do the trick then.
+
+Detached from the control panel of his cerebral cortex his body
+mechanism functioned perfectly. It was like a space-ship smoothly
+piloted by its automatic navigators. Dirrul gave himself over to his
+own built-in stimulus-response relays and the screeching fear
+shriveled and died.
+
+Calm and unhurried he walked past the fire and the sleeping men. As
+calmly he searched the mouth of the ravine for Sorgel's disk. When he
+found it he stuffed it into the pocket of his tunic and strode
+confidently along the trail that led down from the hills.
+
+It was dawn. In the pink morning light he could see the Vininese city
+at his feet, neat, clean, well-blocked streets and towering buildings
+of black stone. On the outskirts were the circular space-fields and
+the long low flat-roofed interplanetary freight depots. Farther away,
+dotting the countryside at regular intervals, were curious
+block-shaped windowless structures surrounded by double walls.
+
+Dirrul had never seen anything like them before but, through a process
+of judicial elimination, he decided they must be the Vininese Beam
+Transmitters. The defense of Vinin was remarkably thorough, far
+surpassing anything of a similar nature on Agron.
+
+It came to him with something of a shock that he was thinking
+rationally once more. His mind was completely clear. He felt ashamed
+of the foolish, groundless terror that had unnerved him in the ravine.
+He tried to understand what had happened to him but it was beyond
+analysis. In retrospect he realized that the danger had been less than
+what he faced on any normal day in the Air-Command emergency
+maintenance service.
+
+The only logical explanation was the food they had given him. It must
+have been heavily drugged with a new poison known to the Vininese.
+Dirrul was tempted to go back and rescue Glenna, if she were still
+alive after the torture to which she had been subjected. But he knew
+it was more important for him to contact Vininese Headquarters first.
+He had a message to deliver. Glenna herself would have wanted that.
+
+In two hours Dirrul was on the plain again. All the suffering of the
+past few hours was gone. The plentiful purple grass had quenched his
+thirst and surprisingly eased his hunger as well. He felt keenly alert
+and alive. The sun was warm, the air was balmy. He was on Vinin.
+
+Spiritually he had come home, to the thing he believed in. Not many
+men had such opportunity to realize their dreams of perfection. To cap
+the triumph Dirrul knew it might still be possible to make his report
+and save the Movement on Agron.
+
+From the top of a purple-swathed knoll he looked down across a
+twisting red stream toward the suburbs of the city. Magnificent
+black-stone villas, surrounded by stylized gardens, were on both sides
+of the green highway.
+
+Further on, close to the city, were the crowded workers' quarters,
+behind them, hidden in a faint mist, the rectangular masses of public
+buildings reaching up toward the stars. This was as Paul Sorgel had so
+often described it. Such grandeur could only belong to the capital
+city of the Vininese Confederacy.
+
+Under the brow of the knoll Dirrul saw one of the stone block
+buildings within its protective double walls. A huge trumpet-like
+transmitter was exposed at the top of the structure. In some ways it
+resembled the Beam Transmitters on Agron but the differences were so
+striking Dirrul knew it was a totally new device--possibly a more
+efficient variation invented by the Vininese. The faint hum of
+machinery and the regular movement of the sending tube indicated that
+the machine was running--but for what purpose Dirrul could only guess.
+
+The yard between the two walls was patrolled by a smartly disciplined
+score of Vininese. Dirrul considered going to them to ask for
+transportation to the city but changed his mind. It was very possible
+that the installation was secret. The guards might have had
+instructions to dispose immediately of any intruder. On the whole it
+seemed wiser to go a little farther to one of the walled villas.
+
+Dirrul walked half a thousand feet along the green highway and turned
+up the drive leading toward one of the sprawling mansions. As he
+passed the portals of the open gate an alarm bell clanged--seconds
+later five Vininese infantry surrounded him, prodding him into the
+house with their gleaming weapons. In precise Vininese, carefully
+enunciated, Dirrul tried to explain what he wanted--but the guards
+made no reply, merely staring at him with cold glazed eyes,
+comprehending nothing.
+
+They threw him roughly into a dark room, where a slim Vininese waited
+in a lounge chair. As Dirrul's eyes grew accustomed to the faint light
+he saw that the Vininese held a snub-nosed rocket-pistol.
+
+"Your permit?" the Vininese asked languidly.
+
+"Yesterday I came here from--"
+
+"Then you have no permit. I must shoot you, of course."
+
+"Sir, I have a message from Agron! You must take me to Headquarters!"
+
+"Oh, you're a tourist. But this is a prohibited area. From the dust
+on your tunic, I take it you have done a great deal of walking. A
+pity, my friend--naturally you've seen the transmitters."
+
+"We have them on Agron but it is of no importance."
+
+The Vininese threw back his head and laughed, "Oh, no--of no
+importance--you have seen nothing!"
+
+"I do not understand you," Dirrul said desperately. "My Vininese is
+very poor. But you must help me. I bring news of the Movement on Agron
+and time is short." Anxiously Dirrul plunged into his story, tripping
+repeatedly over the involved syntax of Vinin to his host's obvious
+amusement.
+
+Eventually, however, he made his point, for the tall Vininese said,
+"Then you must be the agent who sent the teleray report. We've been
+looking for you, sir. We feared, after you crashed, that you might
+have been taken by the vagabonds." Still holding Dirrul centered in
+the gunsight the Vininese picked up a portable teleray and asked for
+Headquarters.
+
+While he waited he added, "You must forgive this reception, my friend
+from Agron. We have been having so much trouble with the vagabonds
+lately we must all go armed. Here in the transmission area we must be
+particularly alert."
+
+His tone was warm but the gun never wavered. When he made his
+connection he spoke rapidly into the mouthpiece, too rapidly for
+Dirrul to work out an accurate translation. It seemed, however, that
+the conversation was centered around the transmitters rather than the
+report Dirrul had to make. The Vininese finished the dialogue and
+smiled engagingly at Dirrul.
+
+"I am to take you to the capital, my friend," he said. "They are
+preparing a reception for you. You are a hero of Vinin, to have braved
+so much for the cause."
+
+The Vininese came forward suddenly and pulled aside the torn cloth at
+the throat of Dirrul's tunic.
+
+"But you--you must have a disk!" The Vininese was suddenly frightened.
+"There is no tourist stamp on your arm. I don't understand."
+
+"Paul Sorgel loaned me his when I left Agron." Dirrul felt in his
+tunic pocket. "He said I was to give it to the Chief when I made my
+report but if you must see it now--"
+
+"No, no--by all means, keep it." The tall man's voice was pleasant
+again. "I was simply afraid that someone might have come who--but it
+is nothing. I am weary from all this vigilance against the vagabonds.
+It is hard to think realistically."
+
+"I was surprised to see so much lawlessness on Vinin."
+
+"Then you're very naive, my friend. There's an element like that among
+all people, although I must admit ours here have suddenly become
+excessively active. Their attacks are so systematic and so
+well-organized! Hardly a night passes without trouble at a work camp
+or a transmitter station.
+
+"Your transmitters are different from ours. Have you developed an
+improvement in technique?"
+
+"They are, curious, aren't they? You must ask the Chief to tell you
+all about them." The Vininese chuckled with delight. "I wouldn't want
+to spoil his surprise by letting you in on the secret first."
+
+
+VII
+
+The Vininese drove Dirrul to the city in a heavily armed surface car.
+Two of the infantrymen sat behind them, their rocket guns ready on
+their knees. It was testimony to the efficiency and organization of
+Vinin that such a finished reception could be prepared on such short
+notice. Dirrul's first intimation of the scope of the ceremony came
+when they stopped at a school to be cheered by the pupils.
+
+Rank upon rank of boys and girls lined up smartly behind the high wire
+fence. They ranged in ages from tots, barely able to stand, to young
+people in late adolescence. Except for the round metal disks, which
+all of them wore, they were completely naked.
+
+"Clothing breeds such false modesty and so many foolish frustrations,"
+Dirrul's host explained. "On Vinin every child is reared in completely
+objective equality. As soon as we take them from their parents--about
+the time when they're first learning to walk--we give them
+identification disks. Before that, when they're in the instinct
+period, the disks aren't necessary.
+
+"After their basic education we classify them. The leader-class is
+issued permanent disks and the others give theirs up. The adjustment
+is something very severe but on the whole the casualties are light."
+Suddenly the Vininese seized Dirrul's hand and looked into his eyes.
+"I trust you follow me, my friend?"
+
+"Yes," Dirrul answered. Reason led him to a conclusion as he looked at
+the massed children, a conclusion he could not bring himself to face.
+He felt a new kind of fear, as cold as the depths of space and as
+devoid of emotion. Instead of trusting to his own logic Dirrul
+struggled to find a flaw in it--for a man cannot easily watch his
+dream turn to dust in his hands.
+
+They drove on into the city. Rows of men and women in working clothes
+lined the streets, cheering wildly in unison. Crossed Vininese flags
+were draped between the buildings and brave-colored streamers danced
+in the wind.
+
+"A reception is good for them," the Vininese said. "We need heroes
+occasionally. It's fortunate you came when you did. The vagabonds have
+had a disturbing effect on morale and it's impossible to suppress the
+news entirely."
+
+The vehicle stopped before the towering government building. Dirrul
+was led up a flight of stone steps to a wide porch overlooking the
+mass of cheering upturned faces in the public square. He stood
+motionless while speeches were made and gay ribbon was draped around
+his neck. The air shook with bright explosions--a huge flag was
+unfurled over the porch--band music began to blare and a tidal wave of
+precision-trained Vininese infantry wheeled into the square.
+
+An official touched Dirrul's arm. "You must take the salute of our
+work-leaders now."
+
+Dirrul was pushed back against the stone railing as an orderly mob
+filed past, blank-faced and chattering with meaningless pleasure. Many
+of them pressed forward to touch his hand before the guards tactfully
+hurried them on. When the organized confusion was at its height a tiny
+square of paper was slipped into his hand.
+
+Dirrul had no idea which of the mob had given it to him and he dared
+not glance at it. But he managed to hide the paper in the band of his
+tunic.
+
+Hour by hour the throng filed past, endless and meaningless. It was an
+agony for Dirrul. For the first time he looked into the face of his
+dream and saw the reality of Vinin--order, discipline, efficiency--and
+utter blankness. Unhappily he recalled one of Dr. Kramer's lectures.
+
+"... Defiance of convention, confusion, frustration, stubbornness--yes
+and a touch of the neurotic too--these goad the individual into
+solving problems. And problem solving is progress. An orderly society
+that asks no questions of itself, a society that has no doubts, is a
+dying society...."
+
+Dirrul understood the professor at last. He looked squarely at the
+fact of what he was, a traitor to his own people, on the verge of
+betraying them. He had been wonderfully deluded by his own
+self-deception.
+
+But the job wasn't quite finished. The Vininese would not have gone to
+take Glenna from the hospital if they had understood his teleray. Let
+them splurge on their reception! He was unimpressed. When the time
+came for questions to be answered he would conveniently forget why he
+had been sent to Vinin. Nothing they could do would drag it out of
+him.
+
+The crowd thinned and Dirrul was taken inside the building, where his
+Vininese host awaited him. Sighing deeply the Vininese stood up.
+"These public displays do take so much of our time," he said, "but
+it's over now." This last seemed to amuse him and he repeated it
+softly before adding, "The Chief's ready to see you."
+
+Remembering the note and the flimsy possibility that it might suggest
+a way out, Dirrul answered quickly, "But, sir, I really ought to clean
+up first."
+
+"You Agronians have such weird notions of propriety!"
+
+"I would feel more presentable to your Chief if--if I could have a
+bath. Perhaps I might even borrow a change of clothing."
+
+The Vininese fingered his chin thoughtfully. "It might be more
+amusing. Yes, the Chief can wait a few minutes longer for you to
+satisfy your vanity."
+
+He summoned a blank-faced liveried servant and asked for a clean
+worker's suit for Dirrul. Then he took Dirrul to the wall tube and
+they shot noiselessly to an upper floor. As he left Dirrul at the
+door of a luxurious suite, the Vininese said, "When you change your
+clothes, my friend, don't forget to take the disk out of your tunic.
+The Chief will want it when you see him."
+
+When he was sure he was alone Dirrul spread open the note. It was a
+crude drawing of a hearing aid and beneath it a cryptic sentence
+written in Agronian,
+
+     _I lost mine and so has Glenna now._
+
+The signature was unmistakably Hurd's but the note made no sense.
+Hurd's hearing was as sound as Dirrul's. He had never used a
+mechanical device--how could he have lost it then? _So has
+Glenna_--that must be the key. Hurd somehow knew about the vagabond
+raiding party that had rescued Glenna from the mental hospital. He
+must have escaped from the Vininese earlier himself. He was probably
+hiding somewhere in the capital.
+
+Working on this hypothesis Dirrul made a guess that the thing Hurd had
+lost was his illusion about the Vininese system. The hearing aid
+symbolized what Hurd had been told about it, as opposed to the reality
+which he saw with his own eyes.
+
+But such an interpretation didn't ring entirely true. It was too
+involved for an idea which could have been better expressed in four
+words--_I know the truth_. Tossing the note aside Dirrul turned on the
+water in the shower room and thoughtfully disrobed.
+
+As he threw his tunic aside a violent paralyzing terror seized his
+mind, making his head sing with a screeching vibration. Blindly he
+snatched up the tunic in order to stuff the cloth into his mouth so he
+would not cry out. But as soon as he pressed it against his skin his
+terror vanished, like a siren suddenly stilled.
+
+The pattern of the real truth fell into place then. Now he understood
+the power of Vinin. Experimentally he took Sorgel's disk out of his
+tunic and laid it on a table. As soon as he did so the blinding
+nameless horror flamed up. When he held the disk again the exhausting
+emotion vanished.
+
+Looking back Dirrul saw an abundance of evidence that might have given
+him a clue, had he not spent so much mental effort bolstering his
+illusion of Vinin. There was the circumstance of his own unrelenting
+terror when he was without the disk in the ravine--the painful sight
+of his captors puncturing the prisoners' eardrums--the soundless talk
+of the vagabonds, like the lip-reading of the deaf--the bleak
+orderliness of the cheering mobs--and, most obvious of all, the
+strange transmitters atop the well-guarded stone block-buildings.
+
+It was all there, even to the final cruelty to the children. What was
+it the Vininese had said? "The adjustment is sometimes very severe but
+on the whole the casualties are light." And the very young, before
+they were taken from their parents, didn't need disks because they
+were in what the Vininese had called "the instinct period."
+
+Dirrul knew what Hurd's drawing meant. Somehow Hurd had lost his
+hearing, perhaps as a result of the beating the police had given him
+on Agron. In any case only the deaf could think rationally on Vinin.
+Hurd was telling Dirrul to shatter his own sense of hearing if he
+still had the will to think and act for himself. The nightmare Dirrul
+had witnessed in the ravine was not torture but the bravery of
+desperate men attempting to rescue rational minds.
+
+The Rational Potential--the gift of the legendary Earthmen! Like the
+processes of thought itself it could never be wiped out by argument or
+reason once it was understood. The Earthmen had wasted centuries
+trying to undo their own evolved rationality before they realized it
+could not be done. Now, on a higher level in another plane, the
+Vininese were struggling to submerge the Earthmen's second achievement
+of the Rational Potential.
+
+It was done by their transmitters. A wave of some sort--probably
+subsonic or supersonic--continuously filled the Vininese atmosphere.
+The Vininese who wore the disks were protected against it. The others
+succumbed if they retained their hearing. As Dirrul himself had
+discovered in the ravine, when he did not consciously think the terror
+diminished.
+
+All Vininese children were given a basic education. It built up their
+automatic responses, established correct stimulus-response behavior
+patterns. Then, for the masses, the protective disks were eliminated
+and the screeching fear pounded at them until the processes of
+creative thinking were destroyed, leaving a backlog of malleable and
+obedient habit patterns. The problem solving was done for them by
+their masters.
+
+The Vininese Confederacy--half the galaxy--was peopled by billions
+upon billions of robot races, ruled by a handful of men with absolute
+power. To that Dirrul would have betrayed his planet! To slavery and
+to the destruction of the Rational Potential, all for the slippery
+dream of orderliness and efficiency which masqueraded as progress.
+
+He could save Agron today--but for how long? Sorgel would bewitch
+countless other discontented Agronian fools. The Movement would try
+again and one day the Vininese space fleet would penetrate the
+Agronian Nuclear Beams. Dirrul had to escape. He had to go home and
+tell the truth about Vinin.
+
+And it was impossible. He was completely trapped with no visible way
+out for himself.
+
+
+VIII
+
+Dirrul stood in front of the metal-surfaced reflector, fingering the
+cap of his ear. To survive as a thinking being he must deafen himself.
+Yet he hesitated. Self-inflicted violence was the negation of the
+Rational Potential.
+
+Then, slowly, he developed a new idea. He could use the power of
+Vinin, to save Agron if not himself!
+
+There came a knock on his door. Dirrul drew on his tunic as a stranger
+entered the room.
+
+"The Chief is impatient--you must come at once."
+
+Durril was led through a metal-roofed tunnel into a wide sunny
+transparent-walled room at the top of the building. The door closed
+behind him. He was alone with a tall smooth-faced man, exotically
+costumed in a tight black suit crusted with white jewels and framed by
+a white cloak thrown loosely around his shoulders. He sat back of a
+tremendous desk--behind his chair was a tilted panel of dials, levers
+and tiny glowing lights, running the length of the room under the
+ceiling-high window.
+
+"It is always a pleasure to welcome a hero of the Vininese
+Confederacy," the Chief said without getting up. His tone was slow,
+tired, emotionless. His eyes were without expression. "May I ask your
+name?"
+
+"Dirrul--Edward Dirrul."
+
+"And you come from Agron with a message from our agent," he said,
+speaking Agronian. "So much we got from your teleray. In fifty
+days--actually forty-nine from now, by your time--your local Movement
+will have use for a Vininese space-fleet. I have already dispatched
+Sub-units B and C. Now, if you will give me the details of your Plan I
+can code-wave them to my commander."
+
+"There's been a mistake, sir. What I really meant when I sent the
+message was--"
+
+"So you've discovered the truth." The Chief's hand darted toward a
+cubicle of his desk and he held a metal-barreled weapon aimed steadily
+at Dirrul. "These things are always so tedious. Give me your disk."
+
+"Of course," Dirrul agreed readily but as he felt in his pocket the
+Chief gestured negatively with his weapon.
+
+"No, keep it." After a pause he added, "You're certain that you know,
+Dirrul?"
+
+"I've seen the transmitters."
+
+"Then why aren't you afraid? Why do you consent so readily? The others
+are always terrified--they'll confess to anything if I promise to let
+them keep the disks. Have you ever heard the sound, Dirrul? Do you
+really know what it's like?"
+
+"You want information from me. You have no chance of getting it if you
+deprive me of the ability to think."
+
+"Granted. And otherwise?"
+
+"You won't get it either."
+
+The Chief sighed wearily. "You are simply trading one romantic
+illusion for another. You have somehow convinced yourself that one
+man--one lone Agronian--can hold out against us. Let me tell you a
+little about our system, Dirrul, so you'll understand how futile it is
+to waste your time and mine like this." Not a trace of feeling came
+into his voice. He sounded slightly bored, reciting a matter-of-fact
+chronology of statistics.
+
+"As you have guessed we create our leader-class on each of our planets
+by protecting them from the sound waves with the disks. If scattered
+groups among the general public should ever gain immunity--as far as
+we know only idiots and the deaf can do that--they could never carry
+out a successful revolt. The only way would be for the transmitter
+stations to be silenced.
+
+"However, every unit operates independently on its own power. We have
+thousands of them on every planet. All but one could be destroyed, and
+that one transmitter would still be enough to control the planet. You
+begin to see, I think, that any kind of resistance is foolish. In time
+you can be made to do as I ask. Unfortunately, we have no time to
+spare.
+
+"Perhaps you're thinking that outsiders--tourists, let's say--could
+come here and overthrow us. All rational beings in the galaxy are
+subject to the same physical laws. They still must hear and if they do
+they're powerless.
+
+"Besides, our secret is remarkably well-kept. The tourists and
+merchants come to our planet in droves. They notice nothing--because
+of the amusing idiosyncrasy of Vininese customs men, who are required
+to stamp the hand of each visitor with an identification mark. The
+coloring material is atomically constituted to act as a temporary disk
+while the tourist is among us. He notices nothing amiss. He sees what
+we want him to see--he goes home favorably impressed--and by that time
+the mark has worn away. You get the general picture, Dirrul? Nothing
+can ever defeat us."
+
+"Nothing but yourselves."
+
+"Romantic nonsense! Let me show you what I can do, Dirrul, even when
+you wear a disk. I think you'll bargain then." The Chief turned a
+little to face the panel behind his desk, feeling over the dials while
+he kept Dirrul framed in his gunsight.
+
+"The young man you went to this morning for help is a sadist. The
+reception was his idea--so was your bath. He likes to have our
+traitors--and you are a traitor, of course, to your own people--he
+likes to have them discover the truth before we take their disks away.
+It's an exquisite torture but in your case annoying, since it puts you
+in a position to bargain. Now it occurs to me that your host should be
+disciplined for his bungling."
+
+The Chief pointed to the surface of his desk. "Watch the screen,
+Dirrul." An opaque rectangle glowed with light, slowly came into
+focus, and revealed a large mirrored lounge, where a number of
+official Vininese stood talking and drinking. The Chief twisted a
+dial, pulled a lever and one of the Vininese collapsed, writhing on
+the glassy floor in violent agony.
+
+The screen went blank.
+
+"I have not only decontrolled your friend's disk," the Chief explained
+blandly, "but I have doubled his receptability to sound. I can
+continue the treatment until he goes mad--or I can snap it off and let
+it serve as a warning.
+
+"From this panel here I control every disk-wearer on Vinin--including
+yourself, Dirrul. You understand, I think, that there can never be
+any disloyalty among our leaders--they're consciously aware of the
+consequences. And revolt in the ranks is physically impossible. We're
+safe, you see, even from ourselves."
+
+Once again there was a slight trace of emotion in the weary voice. "No
+doubt you also gather, Dirrul, who is the real ruler of Vinin. There
+are a hundred thousand of us, more or less, scattered throughout the
+Confederacy. All right--tell me what I need to know. If your Plan
+succeeds I'll deputize you for Agron when we annex it."
+
+Suddenly Dirrul saw the answer. His heart leaped with joy and it was
+difficult to keep the feeling out of his voice when he said, "You have
+been talking to me in my own tongue." Carefully he inched toward the
+desk. "And understanding me."
+
+"Entirely beside the point."
+
+"Not entirely. You hear what I say--which means that you must wear a
+disk too."
+
+Dirrul sprang across the desk. At the same time the Chief raised his
+weapon and fired. Flame seared Dirrul's cheek. A red mist welled
+before him and he reeled back against the control panel as the Chief
+fired again. The second explosion was so close it seemed to be within
+his own mind.
+
+The Chief's hand clawed at Dirrul's tunic, ripping the disk away from
+him. Recoiling in anticipation of the dread shock wave, Dirrul hurled
+himself at the Chief.
+
+But instead of the screaming terror he felt nothing. An inexplicable
+force seemed to close in on him. His head spun dizzily but his mind
+still functioned. He smashed his fist into the face of the Chief and
+the body sagged to the floor.
+
+Dirrul stood bewildered, looking at his hand. A mass of flesh-like
+material, torn from the Chief's face, clung to his knuckles. Dirrul
+bent over the man and touched his skin. It crumbled under pressure and
+the lifelike purple coloring ran. Dirrul peeled the putty away until
+he could make out the shape of the pale wrinkled very aged face
+beneath.
+
+Sickened he moved away--for he had seen the ruler of Vinin.
+
+
+IX
+
+Dirrul backed into the desk, knocking a fragile statuette to the
+floor. When it lay shattered at his feet he understood why he could
+still plan and reason, even though the disk was gone. The Chief's
+shot, fired so close to his head, had deafened him either temporarily
+or permanently.
+
+Dirrul ran to the control panel and twisted dials frantically, pulling
+every lever he could find. He had no idea what he was doing and it
+didn't matter so long as something happened. If he could decontrol
+even half the disks on Vinin it would create enough confusion to cover
+his own escape.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Twenty-five days later the Space-dragon shot up from the space-field
+which was hidden among the stony Vininese mountain ravines. As it cut
+through the stratosphere Dirrul's bonds were released. He felt
+exhausted and empty. His last memory was of talking to Hurd on the
+mountain trail. Beyond that was a blank. He looked up at Glenna, as
+beautiful as ever but somehow more mature.
+
+"You're all right now, Eddie?" she asked in a loud voice that betrayed
+her deafness.
+
+"I think so. Where are you taking me?"
+
+She touched her ears, still crudely bandaged. "You must say everything
+very slowly, Eddie. I haven't yet learned to read lips as well as Hurd
+does."
+
+"Where are we going?"
+
+"Back to Agron."
+
+"We have no right, Glenna--we're traitors!"
+
+"We have a duty to tell them the truth. What they do with us doesn't
+matter."
+
+He shook his head weakly, still lost in his stupor. "Tell me what
+happened, Glenna--I can't remember anything."
+
+"You got out of the government building and stole a Space-dragon. Then
+you came looking for us. Just after you met Hurd your hearing began to
+come back and of course you lost control of yourself. Hurd wanted to
+break your eardrums but I wouldn't let him.
+
+"Since we had a space-ship at last we could get away from Vinin and I
+knew you'd be all right when we did. But it took us a month to steal
+enough fuel. Something you did in the government building paralyzed a
+lot of the leaders for a while but by the time we got around to
+looking for fuel the others had restored order again."
+
+The door of the control room slid open and Hurd dropped down on the
+bunk beside Dirrul. "Feeling better?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"I guess so. The whole picture's beginning to come back."
+
+Hurd sighed with relief and his face relaxed.
+
+Dirrul asked slowly, "How did you get away from them, Hurd?"
+
+"I lost my hearing in the beating Sorgel gave me on Agron."
+
+"_Sorgel!_" Dirrul repeated unbelievingly. It was the last illusion to
+go and for that reason the most painful. "Then it wasn't the Agronian
+police--"
+
+"Of course it was Sorgel," Glenna said quietly. "He had to get rid of
+us because we wouldn't go along with him on the idea of a Vininese
+invasion. I tried so hard to tell you, Eddie, but I couldn't because
+of the drugs they gave us."
+
+"The Vininese never knew I was deaf," Hurd went on. "It's easy enough
+to escape from a work camp when you can think for yourself. The
+Vininese resistance found me in the hills and I've been working with
+them ever since. A pitiful band of the deaf, fighting insurmountable
+odds to win back the human dignity of half the galaxy! But they won't
+turn tail and run and their numbers grow every time they raid a work
+camp."
+
+"Were you with the men who kidnapped Glenna?"
+
+"We were all out that night, trying to keep watch on the camps near
+the capital. We didn't know which one Glenna was in but I was sure the
+Vininese would try to reach her after they got your teleray message.
+We counted on the Vininese leading us to her and we knew we had to
+kidnap her first if we were to keep them from learning about the Plan
+on Agron.
+
+"Unfortunately I wasn't with the group that picked you up, Eddie. They
+thought they had taken a Vininese leader and it seemed such a suitable
+punishment to take your disk away and let you hear the sound for a
+while. Later--after you'd escaped--when the others described your
+Air-Command uniform I took a chance and sent my note."
+
+He helped Dirrul to his feet. "You'll have to take over from here on
+in, Eddie. You said you knew how to pilot this thing. I figured out a
+take-off but that's as far as I can go."
+
+"Sorgel's pilot showed me once," he said. "What I don't remember I'll
+improvise. He said a Space-dragon could make the run in thirty days.
+This baby's got to do it in less than twenty-five if we're going to
+beat the Vininese fleet to Agron."
+
+"You didn't tell them the Plan, did you, Eddie?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The Vininese won't land without instructions."
+
+"Sorgel may get up enough courage to send a teleray code. We can't
+take any chances either."
+
+Dirrul drove himself without rest. He cut every corner he knew, used
+every trick of navigational skill he had ever learned. Nonetheless it
+was twenty-eight days before the little ship hung in the air over the
+Agronian capital.
+
+His heart sank. On the space-field, in neat ranks, the Vininese
+space-fleet was drawn up in proud review. The planet had fallen!
+Dirrul made his decision instinctively.
+
+The Space-dragon wheeled and swept low over the field, its vicious
+guns blazing. The yellow clouds of destruction swept up toward the
+sky--the little ship was caught in the blazing flame. The
+interplanetary freight sheds loomed ahead. And the world exploded,
+falling apart into a soothing painless silence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dirrul opened his eyes and looked at the neutral blue of a hospital
+ceiling. Gradually he became conscious of Dr. Kramer, seated by the
+bed.
+
+"Dr. Kramer!" Dirrul whispered. "Then everything's all right."
+
+"If by everything you mean your companions, yes. There's even a chance
+we can restore the girl's hearing."
+
+"And the Vininese?"
+
+"Defeated."
+
+"Dr. Kramer, we've got to destroy the Confederacy! I saw their
+transmitters--I know how their system works."
+
+"Hush, Edward--I promised not to excite you. We know about it."
+
+"Then how could you have been foolish enough to let them land?"
+
+"It seemed a pity not to give a few of their people another chance.
+It's working out quite nicely too."
+
+"I don't follow you, Dr. Kramer."
+
+"Long ago we became interested when tourists told us about the curious
+block-buildings on Vinin. Our physics boys worked out an ingenious
+device for analyzing their atmosphere. It was a little machine
+concealed in the lining of an ordinary air-freight crate, as I recall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"A machine is quite objective, Edward--and Customs men don't stamp
+freight crates with the negative adaptors. When we learned that a
+Vininese fleet was going to land here we simply issued insulating
+helmets to all our people and let them come. As soon as we destroyed
+their portable transmitters the Vininese army proved quite adaptable
+to a new environment."
+
+"Then--I did nothing to help when I destroyed their fleet?"
+
+"Unfortunately you wounded two of our mechanics."
+
+"I'm a traitor, Dr. Kramer. Even when I try I can't redeem myself!"
+
+"Only on Vinin can you betray an external absolute, Edward. To an
+Agronian all objective concepts are relative to the subjective
+interpretations made by each individual. You can only be a traitor to
+yourself."
+
+"The words are pleasant to say to a sick man but the fact remains--I
+would have betrayed Agron."
+
+"But you didn't. Why not?"
+
+"When I saw what their efficiency really meant--"
+
+"You changed your mind before you knew about the transmitters?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you're libeling yourself. Don't trap yourself in another
+self-delusion, Edward. All that's happened is that you've grown up."
+
+Dirrul said slowly, feeling for words that would express the idea as
+he felt it, "When I was in the center of the galaxy, looking out on
+space, I almost grasped a new concept but I lost it when the Agronian
+patrol attacked me. It's coming back.
+
+"Time and space seem to be one and the same. Neither exists as an
+objective reality. There is no past and no future--all of it occurs
+eternally in the instant of my own being. I am everything and
+nothing--infinity and a speck lost in space."
+
+"Thus you discover the Rational Potential," Dr. Kramer smiled. "I
+think you're ready for the space-pilot promotional, Edward." After a
+pause Dr. Kramer inquired, "Did you see the Chief of Vinin, Edward?"
+
+"Then you know about that too?"
+
+"I've guessed--it seems likely."
+
+"I scraped off the putty and the face color. Beneath it he was an
+Earthman. A hundred thousand of them rule the Confederacy."
+
+"All time and space, forever occurring for each of us in the instant
+of now! Yes, he would be an Earthman, Edward--quite logically. Both
+good and evil begin with the same source. Both have the same Rational
+Potential. The act of being has always been the same struggle of
+constant forces, between the absolute and the relative. The time never
+changes nor the event but merely the passing illusion of place."
+
+Shaking his head the chubby professor departed. Dirrul closed his
+eyes, at peace with himself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Instant of Now, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.
+
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