"We can"t--not for sure," said Hockley. "Not until we go there and see for ourselves, step by step. But we aren"t going to be confined to the Rykes" narrow trail. We are going on a broad path to take in as many byways as we can possibly find. We"ll explore every probability we come to, and look behind every bush and under every pebble.
"We will move together, the thousands and the millions of us, simultaneously, interacting with one another, exchanging data. Most certainly, many will end up in blind alleys. Some will find data that seems the ultimate truth at one point and pure deception at another. Who can tell ahead of time which of these multiple paths we should take?
Certainly not the Rykes, who have bypa.s.sed most of them!
"It doesn"t matter that many paths lead to failure--not as long as we remain in communication with each other. In the end we will find the best possible future for us. But there is no _one_ future, only a mult.i.tude of possible futures. We must have the right to build the one that best fits our own kind."
"Is that more important than achieving immediately a more peaceful, unified, and secure society?" said Markham.
"Infinitely more important!" said Hockley.
"It is fortunate at least, then, that you are in no position to implement these insane beliefs of yours. The Ryke program was offered to Earth, and it shall be accepted on behalf of Earth. You may be sure of a very poor hearing when you try to present these notions back home."
"You jump to conclusions, Senator," said Hockley with mild confidence.
"Why do you suppose I proposed this trip if I did not believe I could do something about the situation? I a.s.sure you that we did not come just to see the sights."
Markham"s jaw slacked and his face became white. "What do you mean? You haven"t dared to try to alienate the Rykes--"
"I mean that there is a great deal we can do about the situation. Now that the sentiments of my colleagues parallel my own I"m sure they agree that we must effectively and finally spike any possibility of Earth"s becoming involved in this Ryke nonsense."
"You wouldn"t dare!--even if you could--"
"We can, and we dare," said Hockley. "When we return to Earth we shall have to report that the Rykes have refused to admit Earth to their program. We shall report that we made every effort to obtain an agreement with them, but it was in vain. If anyone wishes to verify the report, the Rykes themselves will say that this is quite true: they cannot possibly consider Earth as a partic.i.p.ant. If you contend that an offer was once made, you will not find the Rykes offering much support since they will be very busily denying that we are remotely qualified."
"The Rykes are hardly ones to meekly submit to any idiotic plan of that kind."
"They can"t help it--if we demonstrate that we _are_ quite unqualified to partic.i.p.ate."
"You--you--"
"It will not be difficult," said Hockley. "The Rykes have set up a perfect teacher-pupil situation, with all the false a.s.sumptions that go with it. There is at least one absolutely positive way to disintegrate such a situation. The testimony of several thousand years" failure of our various educational systems indicates that there are quite a variety of lesser ways also--
"Perhaps you are aware of the experiences and techniques commonly employed on Earth by white men in their efforts to educate the aborigine. The first procedure is to do away with the tribal medicine men, ignore their lore and learning. Get them to give up the magic words and their pots of foul smelling liquids, abandon their ritual dances and take up the white man"s great wisdom.
"We have done this time after time, only to learn decades later that the natives once knew much of anesthetics and healing drugs, and had genuine powers to communicate in ways the white man can"t duplicate.
"But once in a long while a group of aborigines show more s.p.u.n.k than the average. They refuse to give up their medicine men, their magic and their hard earned lore acc.u.mulated over generations and centuries.
Instead of giving these things up they insist on the white man"s learning these mysteries in preference to _his_ nonsensical and ineffective magic. They completely frustrate the situation, and if they persist they finally destroy the white man as an educator. He is forced to conclude that the ignorant savages are unteachable.
"It is an infallible technique--and one that we shall employ. Dr.
Silvers will undertake to teach his mathematical lecturer in the approaches to the Legrandian Equations. He will speculate long and noisily on the geometry which potentially lies in this mathematical system. Dr. Carmen will elucidate at great length on the properties of the chain of chemicals he has been advised to abandon.
"Each of us has at least one line of research the Rykes would have us give up. That is the very thing we shall insist on having investigated.
We shall teach them these things and prove Earthmen to be an unlearned, unteachable band of aborigines who refuse to pursue the single path to glory and light, but insist on following every devious byway and searching every darkness that lies beside the path.
"It ought to do the trick. I estimate it should not be more than a week before we are on our way back home, labeled by the Rykes as utterly hopeless material for their enlightenment."
The senators seemed momentarily appalled and speechless, but they recovered shortly and had a considerable amount of high flown oratory to distribute on the subject. The scientists, however, were comparatively quiet, but on their faces was a subdued glee that Hockley had to admit was little short of fiendish. It was composed, he thought, of all the gloating antic.i.p.ations of all the schoolboys who had ever put a thumbtack on the teacher"s chair.
Hockley was somewhat off in his prediction. It was actually a mere five days after the beginning of the Earthmen"s campaign that the Rykes gave them up and put them firmly aboard a vessel bound for home. The Rykes were apologetic but firm in admitting they had made a sorry mistake, that Earthmen would have to go their own hopeless way while the Rykes led the rest of the Universe toward enlightenment and glory.
Hockley, Showalter, and Silvers watched the planet drop away beneath them. Hockley could not help feeling sympathetic toward the Rykes. "I wonder what will happen," he said slowly, "when they crash headlong into an impa.s.sable barrier on that beautiful, straight road of theirs. I wonder if they"ll ever have enough guts to turn aside?"
"I doubt it," said Showalter. "They"ll probably curl up and call it a day."
Silvers shook his head as if to ward off an oppressive vision. "That shouldn"t be allowed to happen," he said. "They"ve got too much. They"ve achieved too much, in spite of their limitations. I wonder if there isn"t some way we could help them?"