So now we know, said the whisper.
‘Like hell we do. What kind of a fortune could possibly be buried in a cave on Rhapsody? It doesn’t make sense.’
It has to make sense, he pointed out. Charlot is here. Sampson is here. They may not know what it is, but it has to be real—make no mistake about that. The problem is that you can’t see the sense.
‘Can you?’
You’re in a better position to guess than I am. You’ve been on worlds of this type before.
‘And you have access to all my memories of those worlds. But there’s never been a world quite like this one. The people on those other worlds lived and acted like people. This is different. It’s possible the idiots only think they’ve found something, and are raising hell over nothing at all.’
You shouldn’t allow your dislike of these people to lead you into underestimating them. They would love to believe that there is nothing in that grotto of theirs. If they do believe it, it’s because they can’t refuse. As your new ally has pointed out, they are not ignorant except by conscious effort of will, which applies only to certain areas. They have their analysts and their logicians. Somebody knows what is in that cave and has checked their guess very carefully indeed. It doesn’t matter who did it—only that it could be done, here no less than anywhere else. The fact that they have refused the galaxy’s values does not make them blind to its prices.
‘Well, you know what kind of thing brings a price these days as well as I do. Knowledge. Saleable ability. Alien science and alien technology. But there’s none of that in the caves of Rhapsody.’
I think you’ll find that the tremendous success of New Alexandria hasn’t been simply in the collection of data. The New Alexandrians—including Charlot—are, in their own right, great scientists. The original purpose of the Library, don’t forget, wasn’t to provide leverage for galactic power, it was to provide for the needs of the pure research workers of the star-worlds.
‘I know all that.’
That’s hardly surprising, since I’m picking it all out of your brain. But it needs calling to your attention, because it has a bearing on the current problem.
‘I don’t see how.’
The New Alexandrians owe all their wealth not to alien knowledge but to their own ability to use and develop what they have found there. Their principal role is not collecting but adapting.
‘In other words,’ I said, ‘you reckon it’s something new. Not vulgar cash convertibles like radioactives or gemstones, but something peculiar which has properties no one’s ever come across before.’
That’s about the size of it. No amount of mineral wealth could possibly command the kind of respect that this find does. They could simply sell that to Sampson far a new set of conversion machines, and carry on exactly as before. This is more important than that—probably important with respect to the ethical considerations of the Church, as well. There seems to be more trouble here than would be warranted by a simple question of whether to involve outsiders or by private profiteering.
‘You could well be right there,’ I conceded. ‘The Church of the Exclusive Reward does seem to be getting itself unduly steamed up. Improvised police forces don’t spring up overnight unless extreme matters of internal politics are involved. And Charlot must have known about the political angle, or he wouldn’t have taken the trouble to provide himself with a local politician en route. They didn’t throw Mavra in stir with us, despite the fact that he was officially an exile. His past political sins appear to have become unimportant in the light of the current conflict.’
We don’t actually know that Mavra has been welcomed back into the fold.
‘They certainly weren’t ignoring him, like they were supposed to.’
Not at all. You’re confusing Mavra with Bayon. Bayon has been excommunicated from the faith. Mavra was merely expelled for political reasons. He still qualifies as one of the faithful.
‘Maybe. But that’s by the way. The question we’ve just set up is what the mystery thing might be able to do. If its properties are what make it so valuable, it must be able to do something we can’t do already.’
Cheap power. A perpetual motion machine.
‘Let’s not be ridiculous. You don’t dig up perpetual motion machines in caves. Are you trying to be funny?’
Of course not. Nor did I mean to imply that there was a perpetual motion machine in the grotto. Merely that something in the cave is capable of evolving power in an undiscovered fashion, which might ultimately lead to the development of a perpetual motion machine. I thought that was quite obvious and straightforward.
‘Well, it wasn’t. And it’s ridiculous. Let’s at least think of examples which don’t blatantly contradict the laws of physics.’
I contradict your precious laws of physics, he pointed out.
‘Yeah,’ I remarked, without enthusiasm. ‘Well, maybe they found another one of you.’
Without a host, he said, scornfully, I’d be hardly likely to wind up in a place like this. And even with a host I’d have difficulty getting into a sealed cave.
‘You were free-living on Lapthorn’s Grave.’
Dormant, between hosts. I didn’t start off like that, you know. I was born into a mind.
‘No,’ I said, ‘I didn’t know. You may have access. to my memories, but I don’t have access to yours.’
I can give you access, he said, with a sudden eagerness which made me very wary indeed.
‘No !’ I said, with some vehemence.
It wouldn’t be difficult, he said. I can imprint them in your mind. It’ll take time, but think what it could offer you. I was once...
‘I don’t want to know!’ It was virtually a mental shriek. I didn’t want to know. Not anything. Not ever. I wanted no part of him.
My abilities saved your life and your ship in the Halcyon Drift, he said.
‘So you did me a favour,’ I retorted. ‘Well, I didn’t ask, and even if I ought to be grateful, I’m not. Let’s just say that once paid for your keep. You’ve rented space in my mind and you’ve added some time to my life. So okay, we’re all square. But we aren’t lovers, and we never will be. Just leave me alone. Don’t do me any more favours. Right?’ I was on edge, and I was pretty tired. Perhaps I let my temper loose and said more than I should have. But the thought of what he might be able to do with my mind and my identity just got on my nerves. I was scared of him.
What about the guessing game? he said, a trifle bitterly. Have we finished?
‘There’s no point,’ I said. ‘Making silly suggestions about perpetual motion machines or super-ray guns or planet-eating bug-eyed monsters is only going to give me bad dreams.’
You’ve had enough of talking to yourself for one day, he said—and this time there was no mistaking the bitterness.
‘I was talking to you,’ I said. ‘Now I want to stop talking to you and sleep, if that’s okay. It’s been a hard day.’
You don’t talk to me, he said. You talk to yourself. All you want from me is an echo. Well, you can’t hide from me, Grainger. I’m here and you have to learn to live with me. You can’t pretend you’re crazy—you’re not the type. You have to acknowledge me. You don’t live in a black cave, you can’t simply choose not to see me. Even if I can’t harm you, Grainger, I’m here. Remember that.
Then there was a funny sensation in my mind, just one fleeting instant of it, like a lead weight falling on top of me... and through me...
Then I cut out.