Party Line

'Equations, yes. But they make no sense. Equations aren't the magic thing all by themselves that people think they are. They have to make some sense and these make no sense. Jay is beginning to think they're something entirely outside the field of physics.'

'Outside the field of physics? What else could they be?'

'That's the question, Ben. You and I have been over this, again and again. You don't seem to understand. Or refuse to understand. Or are too pig-headed to allow yourself to understand. We aren't dealing with humans out there. I understand that and my people understand it. But you refuse to accept it. You think of those other people out there among the stars as simply funny-looking humans. I don't know, no one knows, what they really are. But we know they aren't humans, not even funny-looking humans. We wear ourselves out at times trying to work out what they are. Not because of any great curiosity on our part, but because we could work with them better if we knew. And we have no idea. You hear me? No idea whatsoever. Hal Rawlins is talking to someone he is convinced is a robot — a funny-looking robot, of course — but he can't even be sure of that. No one can be sure of anything at all. The point is that we don't really have to be. They accept us, we accept them. They are patient with us and we with them. They may be more patient than we are, for they know we are newcomers, new subscribers on this party line we share. None of them think like us, none of us think like them. We try to adapt ourselves to their way of thinking, they try to adapt themselves to our way of thinking. All we know for sure is that they are intelligences, all they know is that we are some outrageous kind of intelligent life form. We are, all of us, a brotherhood of intelligences, getting along the best we can, talking, gossiping, teaching, learning, trading information, laying out ideas.'

This is the kind of crap you're always talking,' said Russell, wrathfully. 'I don't give a damn about all your philosophizing. What I want is something to work on. The deal is that when you have something that is promising, you pass it on to us.'

'But the judgment is mine,' said Thomas, 'and rightly so. In some of the stuff we get here, there could be certain implications…'

'Implications, hell!'

'What are you doing with what we have given you? We gave you the data on artificial molecules. What have you done on that?'

'We're working on it.'

'Work harder, then. Quit your bellyaching and show some results on that one. You and I both know what it would mean. With it, we could built to order any material, put together any kind of structure we might wish. Could build the kind of world we want, to order. The materials we want to our own specifications — food, metal, fabrics, you name it.'

'Development,' Russell said, defensively, 'takes time. Keep your shirt on.'

'We gave you the data on cell replacement. That would defeat disease and old age. Carried to its ultimate degree, an immortal world — if we wanted an immortal world, and could control it and afford it. What are you doing with that?'

'We're working on that one, too. All these things take time.'

'Mary Kay thinks she has found what may be an ideal religion. She thinks that she may even have found God. At times, she says, she feels she's face to face with God. How about that one? We'll hand it over to you anytime you say.'

'You keep that one. What we want is FTL.'

'You can't have FTL. Not until we know more. As you say, we have mountains of data on it…'

'Give me that data. Let my boys get to work on it.'

'Not yet. Not until we have a better feel of it. To tell you the truth, Ben, there's something scary about it.'

'What do you mean, scary?'

'Something wrong. Something not quite right. You have to trust our judgment.'

'Look, Paul, we've gone out to Centauri. Crawled out there. Took years to get there, years to get back. And nothing there. Not a goddamn thing. Just those three suns. We might just as well not have gone. That killed star travel. The public wouldn't stand still for another one like that. We have to have FTL, or we'll never go to the stars. Now we know it can be done. You guys have it at your fingertips and you won't let us in on it.'

'As soon as we have something even remotely possible, we'll hand it over to you.'

'Couldn't we just have a look at it? If it's as bad, as screwed up as you say it is, we'll hand it back.' Thomas shook his head. 'Not a chance,' he said.

III

There were no words, although there was the sense of unspoken words. No music, but the sense of music. No landscape,butafeeloftallslendertrees, graceful in the wind; of park-like lawns surrounding stately houses; of a running brook glistening in an unseen sun, babbling over stones; of a lake with whitecaps racing in to shore. No actuality, but a compounded belief that a shattering actuality lurked just around the corner, waiting to burst out.