"It"s a bookcase," said Harlan. He had the impulse to ask Finge how he felt now that his hands rested firmly upon the small of his back. Would he not consider it cleaner to have his clothes and his own body constructed of pure and undefiled energy fields?
Finge"s eyebrows lifted. "A bookcase. Then those objects resting upon the shelves are books. Is that right?"
"Yes, sir."
"Authentic specimens?"
"Entirely, Computer. I picked them up in the 24th. The few I have here date from the 20th. If--if you intend to look at them, I wish you"d be careful. The pages have been restored and impregnated, but they"re not foil. They take careful handling."
"I won"t touch them. I have no intention of touching them. Original 20th Century dust is on them, I imagine. Actual books!" He laughed. "Pages of cellulose, too? You implied that."
Harlan nodded. "Cellulose modified by the impregnation treatment for longer life. Yes." He opened his mouth for a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm. It was ridiculous to identify himself with these books, to feel a slur upon them to be a slur upon himself.
"I dare say," said Finge, still on the subject, "that the whole content of those books could be placed on two meters of film and stored in a finger"s end. What do the books contain?"
Harlan said, "They are bound volumes of a news magazine of the 20th."
"You read that?"
Harlan said proudly, "These are a few volumes of the complete collection I have. No library in Eternity can duplicate it."
"Yes, your hobby. I remember now you once told me about your interest in the Primitive. I"m amazed your Educator ever allowed you to grow interested in such a thing. A complete waste of energy."
Harlan"s lips thinned. The man, he decided, was deliberately trying to irritate him out of possession of calm reasoning faculties. If so, he must not be allowed to succeed.
Harlan said flatly, "I think you"ve come to see me about my report."
"Yes, I have." The Computer looked about, selected a chair, and sat down gingerly. "It is not complete, as I said over the communicator."
"In what way, sir?" (Calm! Calm!) Finge broke into a nervous twitch of a smile. "What happened that you didn"t mention, Harlan?"
"Nothing, sir." And though he said it firmly, he stood there, hangdog.
"Come, Technician. You spent several periods of time in the society of the young lady. Or you did if you followed the spatio-temporal chart. You did follow it, I suppose?"
Harlan"s guilt riddled him to the point where he could not even rise to the bait of this open a.s.sault upon his professional competence.
He could only say, "I followed it."
"And what happened? You include nothing of the private interludes with the woman."
"Nothing of importance happened," said Harlan, dry-lipped.
"That is ridiculous. At your time of life and with your experience, I don"t have to tell you that it is not for an Observer to judge what is important and what is not."
Finge"s eyes were keenly upon Harlan. They were harder and more eager than quite befitted his soft line of questioning.
Harlan noted that well and was not fooled by Finge"s gentle voice, yet the habit of duty tugged at him. An Observer must report _everything_. An Observer was merely a sense-perceptive pseudopod thrust out by Eternity into Time. It tested its surroundings and was drawn back. In the fulfillment of his function an Observer had no individuality of his own; he was not really a man.
Almost automatically Harlan began his narration of the events he had left out of his report. He did it with the trained memory of the Observer, reciting the conversations with word-for-word accuracy, re constructing the tone of voice and cast of countenance. He did it lovingly, for in the telling he lived it again, and almost forgot, in the process, that a combination of Finge"s probing and his own healing sense of duty was driving him into an admission of guilt.
It was only as he approached the end result of that first long conversation that he faltered and the sh.e.l.l of his Observer"s objectivity showed cracks.
He was saved from further details by the hand that Finge suddenly raised and by the Computer"s sharp, edgy voice. "Thank you. It is enough. You were about to say that you made love to the woman."
Harlan grew angry. What Finge said was the literal truth, but Finge"s tone of voice made it sound lewd, coa.r.s.e, and, worse than that, commonplace. Whatever else it was, or might be, it was not commonplace.
Harlan had an explanation for Finge"s att.i.tude, for his anxious cross-examination, for his breaking off the verbal report at the moment he did. Finge was jealous! That much Harlan would have sworn was obvious. Harlan had succeeded in taking away a girl that Finge had meant to have.
Harlan felt the triumph in that and found it sweet. For the first time in his life he knew an aim that meant more to him than the frigid fulfillment of Eternity. He was going to keep Finge jealous, because Noys Lambent was to be permanently his.
In this mood of sudden exaltation he plunged into the request that originally he had planned to present only after a wait of a discreet four or five days.
He said, "It is my intention to apply for permission to form a liaison with a Timed individual."
Finge seemed to snap out of a reverie. "With Noys Lambent, I presume."
"Yes, sir. As Computer in charge of the Section, it will have to go through you. . . ."
Harlan wanted it to go through Finge. Make him suffer. If he wanted the girl himself, let him say so and Harlan could insist on allowing Noys to make her choice. He almost smiled at that. He hoped it would come to that. It would be the final triumph.
Ordinarily, of course, a Technician could not hope to push through such a matter in the face of a Computer"s desires, but Harlan was sure he could count on Twissell"s backing, and Finge had a long way to go before he could buck Twissell.
Finge, however, seemed tranquil. "It would seem," he said, "that you have already taken illegal possession of the girl."
Harlan flushed and was moved to a feeble defense. "The spatio-temporal chart insisted on our remaining alone together. Since nothing of what happened was specifically forbidden, I feel no guilt."
Which was a lie, and from Finge"s half-amused expression one could feel that he knew it to be a lie.
He said, "There will be a Reality Change."
Harlan said, "If so, I will amend my application to request liaison with Miss Lambent in the new Reality."
"I don"t think that would be wise. How can you be sure in advance? In the new Reality, she may be married, she may be deformed. In fact I can tell you this. In the new Reality, she will not want you. She will _not_ want you."
Harlan quivered. "You know nothing about it."
"Oh? You think this great love of yours is a matter of soul-to-soul contact? That it will survive all external changes? Have you been reading novels out of Time?"
Harlan was goaded into indiscretion. "For one thing, I don"t believe you.,, Finge said coldly, "I beg pardon."
"You"re lying." Harlan didn"t care what he said now. "You"re jealous. It"s all it amounts to. You"re jealous. You had your own plans for Noys but she chose me."
Finge said, "Do you realize--"
"I realize a great deal. I"m no fool. I may not be a Computer, but neither am I an ignoramus. You say she won"t want me in the new Reality. How do you know? You don"t even know yet what the new Reality will be. You don"t know if there must be a new Reality at all. You just received my report. It must be a.n.a.lyzed before a Reality Change can be computed, let alone submitted for approval. So when you affect to know the nature of the Change, you are lying."
There were a number of ways in which Finge might have made response. Harlan"s heated mind was aware of many. He did not try to choose among them. Finge might stalk out in affected dudgeon; he might call in a member of Security and have Harlan taken into custody for insubordination; he might shout back, yelling as angrily as Harlan; he might put in an immediate call to Twissell, lodging a formal complaint; he might--he might . . .
Finge did none of this.
He said gently, "Sit down, Harlan. Let"s talk about this."
And because that response was completely unexpected, Harlan"s jaw sagged and he sat down in confusion. His resolution faltered. What was this?
"You remember, of course," said Finge, "that I told you that our problem with the 482nd involved an undesirable att.i.tude on the" part of the Timers of the current Reality toward Eternity. You do remember that, don"t you?" He spoke with the mild urging of a schoolmaster toward a somewhat backward student, yet Harlan thought he could detect a kind of hard glitter in his eye.
Harlan said, "Of course."
"You remember, too, that I told you that the Allwhen Council was reluctant to accept my a.n.a.lysis of the situation without specific confirming Observations. Doesn"t that imply to you that I had already Computed the necessary Reality Change?"
"But my own Observations represent the confirmation, don"t they?"
"They do."
"And it would take time to a.n.a.lyze them properly."
"Nonsense. Your report means nothing. The confirmation lay in what you told me orally moments ago."
"I don"t understand you."
"Look, Harlan, let me tell you what is wrong with the 482nd. Among the upper cla.s.ses of this Century, particularly among the women, there has grown up the notion that Eternals are really Eternal, literally so; that they live forever. . . . Great Time, man, Noys Lambent told you as much. You repeated her statements to me not twenty minutes ago."
Harlan stared blankly at Finge. He was remembering Noys"s soft, caressing voice as she leaned toward him and caught at his eyes with her own lovely, dark glance: _You live forever. You"re an Eternal_.
Finge went on, "Now a belief like that is bad, but, in itself, not too bad. It can lead to inconveniences, increase difficulties for the Section, but Computation would show that only in a minority of cases would Change be necessary. Still, if a Change _is_ desirable, isn"t it obvious to you that the inhabitants of the Century who must, above all, change maximally with the Change, be those who are subject to the superst.i.tion. In other words, the female aristocracy. Noys."
"It may be, but I"ll take my chance," said Harlan.
"You have no chance at all. Do you think your fascinations and charm persuaded the soft aristocrat to fall into the arms of an unimportant Technician? Come, Harlan, be realistic about this."
Harlan"s lips grew stubborn. He said nothing.
Finge said, "Can"t you guess the additional superst.i.tion which these people have added to their belief in the actual eternal life of the Eternals? Great Time, Harlan! Most of the women believe that intimacy with an Eternal will enable a mortal woman (as they think of themselves) to live forever!"
Harlan swayed. He could hear Noys"s voice again so clearly: _If I were made an Eternal_ . . .
And then her kisses.
Finge went on. "The existence of such a superst.i.tion was hard to believe, Harlan. It was unprecedented. It lay within the region of random error so that a search through the Computations for the previous Change yielded no information respecting it one way or the other. The Allwhen Council wanted firm evidence, direct substantiation. I chose Miss Lambent as a good example of her cla.s.s. I chose you as the other subject----"
Harlan struggled to his feet. "You chose _me?_ As a _subject?_"
"I"m sorry," said Finge stiffly, "but it was necessary. You made a very good subject."
Harlan stared at him.
Finge had the grace to squirm a bit under that wordless stare. He said, "Don"t you see? No, you still don"t. Look, Harlan, you"re a coldfish product of Eternity. You won"t look at a woman. You consider women and all that concerns t.hem unethical. No, there"s a better word. You consider them _sinful_. That att.i.tude shows all over you, and to any woman you"d have all the s.e.x appeal of a month-dead mackerel. Yet here we have a woman, a beautiful pampered product of a hedonistic culture, who ardently seduces you on your first evening together, virtually begging for your embrace. Don"t you understand that that is ridiculous, impossible, unless--well, unless it is the confirmation we were looking for."
Harlan struggled for words. "You say she sold herself----"
"Why that expression? There is no shame attached to s.e.x in this Century. The only strange thing is that she chose you as partner, and _that_ she did for the sake of eternal life. It"s plain."
And Harlan, arms raised, hands claw-bent, with no rational thought in his mind, or any irrational one other than to choke and throttle Finge, sprang forward.
Finge stepped back hastily. He brought out a blaster with a quick, trembling gesture. "Don"t touch me! Back!"
Harlan had just enough sanity to halt his rush. His hair was matted. His shirt was stained with perspiration. His breath whistled through pinched white nostrils.
Finge said shakily, "I know you very well, you see, and I thought your reaction might be violent. Now I"ll shoot if I have to."
Harlan said, "Get out."
"I will. But first you"ll listen. For attacking a Computer, you can be decla.s.sified, but we"ll let that go. You will understand, however, that I did not lie. The Noys Lambent of the new Reality, whatever else may be or not be, will lack this superst.i.tion. The whole purpose of the Change will be to wipe out the superst.i.tion. And without it, Harlan"-- his voice was almost a snarl--"how could a woman like Noys want a man like you?"
The pudgy Computer backed toward the door of Harlan"s personal quarters, blaster still leveled.
He paused to say, with a sort of grim gaiety, "Of course, if you had her now, Harlan, if you had her now, you could enjoy her. You could keep your liaison and make it formal. That is, if you had her now. But the Change will come soon, Harlan, and after that, you will not have her. What a pity, the now does not last, even in Eternity, eh, Harlan?"
Harlan no longer looked at him. Finge had won after all and was leaving in clear and leering possession of the field. Harlan stared unseeingly at his own toes, and when he looked up Finge was gone-- whether five seconds earlier or fifteen minutes Harlan could not have said.
Hours had pa.s.sed nightmarishly and Harlan felt trapped in the prison of his mind. All that Finge had said was so true, so transparently true. Harlan"s Observer mind could look back upon the relationship of himself and Noys, that short, unusual relationship, and it took on a different texture.
It wasn"t a case of instant infatuation. How could he have believed it was? Infatuation for a man like himself?
Of course not. Tears stung his eyes and he felt ashamed. How obvious it was that the affair was a case of cool calculation. The girl had certain undeniable physical a.s.sets and no ethical principles to keep her from using them. So she used them and that had nothing to do with Andrew Harlan as a person. He simply represented her distorted view of Eternity and what it meant.
Automatically Harlan"s long fingers caressed the volumes in his small bookshelf. He took one out and, unseeingly, opened it.
The print blurred. The faded colors of the ill.u.s.trations were ugly, meaningless blotches.
Why had Finge troubled to tell him all this? In the strictest sense he ought not to have. An Observer, or anyone acting as Observer, ought never to know the ends attained by his Observation. It removed him by so much from the ideal position of the objective non-human tool.
It was to crush him, of course; to take a mean and jealous revenge!
Harlan fingered the open page of the magazine. He found himself staring at a duplication, in startling red, of a ground vehicle, similar to vehicles characteristic of the 45th, 182nd, 590th, and 984th Centuries, as well as of late Primitive times. It was a very common sort of affair with an internal-combustion motor. In the Primitive era natural petroleum fractions were the source of power and natural rubber cushioned the wheels. That was true of none of the later centuries, of course.
Harlan had pointed that out to Cooper. He had made quite a point of it, and now his mind, as though longing to turn away from the unhappy present, drifted back to that moment. Sharp, irrelevant images filled the ache within Harlan.
"These advertis.e.m.e.nts," he had said, "tell us more of Primitive times than the so-called news articles in the same magazine. The news articles a.s.sume a basic knowledge of the world it deals with. It uses terms it feels no necessity of explaining. What is a "golf ball," for instance?"
Cooper had professed his ignorance readily.
Harlan went on in the didactic tone he could scarcely avoid on occasions such as this. "We could deduce that it was a small pellet of some sort from the nature of the casual mentions it receives. We know that it is used in a game, if only because it is mentioned in an item under the heading "Sport." We can even make further deductions that it is. .h.i.t by a long rod of some sort and that the object of the game is to drive the ball into a hole in the ground. But why bother with deduction and reasoning? Observe this advertis.e.m.e.nt! The object of it is only to induce readers to buy the ball, but in so doing we are presented with an excellent close-range portrait of one, with a section cut into it to show its construction."
Cooper, coming from an era in which advertis.e.m.e.nt was not as wildly proliferative as it was in the later Centuries of Primitive times, found all this difficult to appreciate. He said, "Isn"t it rather disgusting the way these people blow their own horn? Who would be fool enough to believe a person"s boastings about his own products? Would he admit defects? Is he likely to stop at any exaggeration?"
Harlan, whose homewhen was middling fruitful in advertis.e.m.e.nt, raised tolerant eyebrows and merely said, "You"ll have to accept that. It"s their way and we never quarrel with the ways of any culture as long as it does not seriously harm mankind as a whole."