A Simple Truth (36 page)

"He's absolutely right
,"
admitted Lincoln, turning to the pilot.  "I'm sorry, I had no right to speak to you the way that I did."

"Forget it, you were right anyway
,"
the pilot answered cheerfully.

Lincoln wondered if he could be as forgiving if the roles had been reversed.  He knew what the answer was and realised that he still had some serious shortcomings for all his new-found confidence and ability.  He would need to take great care not to grow arrogant.  He could see now how easy that would be.

There was much to talk about on the way home.  All were chatting excitedly, all except Lincoln.  After the Scout had left he suddenly felt very conscious of his own and humanity's powerlessness in comparison to the aliens.  He sat and wondered.  He was more than merely impressed at the miracles he had witnessed, he was stunned.  There was apparently no limit to what they could do
;
humanity's abilities were as nothing in comparison.  We had treated them as equals so far, and they had responded in kind.  There was no reason to suppose that things could not continue in the same friendly fashion until they eventually left, but somehow he could not dispel a distinct sense of disquiet.  He remembered his prophetic dream and the emotions he had felt when he realised
that
his trust had been betrayed.  Perhaps he would not be too disappointed when they left after all.

21
   
P
roceed
W
ith
C
aution

Something had happened.  Lincoln could sense it.  As soon as he entered the main building he could feel the charged atmosphere. 
His assistant
looked up as he entered his suite.  He was delighted
to see him
and could hardly wait to tell him of the message received only minutes earlier, but which was by now known by almost everyone in the WSA complex.

"Thank goodness you're
back
,
"
he exclaimed.
"
They
want volunteers to go for analysis.  It will be completely painless, just a b
rain
scan, and they are offering guided tours of their ship to all who go.  Needless to say everyone is clamouring for places, and they want hundreds, so there's a chance for us all
.
"

"Hold on
Carl
, where's the message?"

Lincoln knew better than
to make any instant judgements.  H
e would have to read the full text for himself.  He was handed a printout and studied it carefully.

"I'd better read this in my office
,"
he
said, "it calls for some serious thought."  He had never acquired the ability to read and take in something properly while being watched.  He needed to be alone to understand the message and to consider its implications.

'Our preliminary investigations are complete
,'
Lincoln read, 'but further research will be necessary to discover the causes that underlie the events of history.  We request the co-operation of human volunteers.  No pain
, discomfort or
harmful
after-effects of any kind
will be incurred
, quite the reverse in fact.
  The research must be done on board our vessel and several hundred people will be needed, from as diverse a range of backgrounds and
cultures
as possible.  Each volunteer will undergo a brief
brain
scan, and
if he or she is willing we shall also make some psychological adjustments to promote goodwill and a strong sense of wellbeing, to help improv
e stability in the short
term.  I
n return we shall be pleased to escort all visitors on a tour of our vessel.  Our own humans have no further need to stay on board so we request permission to transfer them to earth.  They are well developed physically and mentally, have excellent resistance to infection
,
and with a little help will adapt rapidly to your environment
. 
Before transfer they will be completely cleared of all micro-organisms that could be harmful to anything on earth. 
I
n time
they
will
interbreed and thereby
guarantee your long
-t
erm security.  Please confirm that you will accept them, and we shall begin to make the arrangements for their transfer and resettlement.'

His assistant
had been preoccupied by the prospect of volunteers visiting the alien ship but Lincoln was much more concerned about allowing the vessel humans to come to earth.  He would have a few counter-proposals of his own before he agreed to any of their requests.

"
C
ommunications
,"
he snapped into his
communicator
.  Jack Arnold's
cheerful
face soon appeared on the screen.

"Jack, release that last message to the public please and add the following rider from me.  'No volunteers are required yet.  This office will ask for volunteers if and when we agree to the research programme.  Any government wishing to accommodate the tribespeople should notify this office.'
End of communication.  And transmit the following message to the aliens.  'We would appreciate details of your findings so far, why you consider further research to be necessary, and what you hope to gain from it.  Full details of the proposed research will be necessary before volunteers can be permitted to take part.  We shall consider your request to transfer your humans and will advise you of our decision in due course.'
Have you got all that Jack?"

"Yes, I've got it
,"
he replied, looking much more solemn.

Lincoln sat back and allowed his mind to go blank for a while.  He had recently adopted this habit and found that it relaxed and refreshed him, ready for whatever lay ahead.  Things seemed to be racing
ahead
now, he sometimes looked back wistfully to his research work on the moon.  Was it really just a few short months since he was there?  It seemed like another lifetime.  He had become a different man in a totally different world.  Five minutes later he was back in the present again, and on his way to see Ranjit Khan.

Lincoln enjoyed talking to and working with Khan.  He never varied, always dependable, quiet and capable.  He could always be relied upon for sound judgement, and had a stabilising influence on all his colleagues.  He was a good man to talk over problems and plans with.  Very often the two of them would sit together, usually in Khan's office, not speaking, just mulling things over.  Khan was a great one for mulling.  He could sit looking at the wall for over an hour at a time, hardly moving, and not consciously applying any effort to solving whatever was the current problem.  He allowed all the known facts to roll around in his mind, and a practical and sensible course of action would usually form of its own accord.

Lincoln had hardly sat down when there was a sharp knock at the door and Jack Arnold stepped in quickly without waiting for an invitation.  His whole manner spelled urgency.

"Thank God I'm in time
,
"
h
e said breathlessly. 
"
A
Scout is going to appear right here in this office, I was afraid you might have died of shock if you weren't warned."

He was only just in time.  The same rapid movement of the air started immediately, and soon there was the Scout, standing with his bubble right in the
centre of Khan's large office.

"Welcome
,"
greeted Lincoln
,
"
a
re you the Scout we spoke to earlier?"

"Yes, but the Scout is only the vehicle, I myself am a Guardian, and still on the vessel."

"Of course
,"
agreed Lincoln, "but it is odd to address someone through the body of another.  Can we be of any help?"

"I am here in response to your message.  You wish to know our findings and the reasons for further research."

"Yes we do, and thank you for coming so promptly."

Khan surreptitiously flicked a switch on the underside of his desk.  This was likely to be a long session and a disturbance would be most unwelcome.  On the outside of his door in large letters appeared the unequivocal command INTERRUPTION FORBIDDEN.  The same switch disabled all incoming calls.  The
Guardian
began his story.

"Study of cellular structure in fossils reveals only the major events of racial history.  Gradual changes, skills learned and knowledge acquired are all there, but those facts merely serve to pos
e further questions, q
uestions that can only be answered by the study of living human minds."

Lincoln felt again the same irrational fear that he had experienced earlier in the aircar.  He felt an overwhelming need for extreme caution. 
He felt a
s if he was playing a deadly game where one false move meant disaster, a game with rules that he did not even know.

"Our original intention
,"
continued the
Guardian
, "was to select and interview certain people after our fossil research was complete.  We hoped that verbal interrogation would furnish any missing data, since considerable ancestral background information is revealed in the
way an individual communicates; h
owever the sort of information we need cannot be obtained in that way."  He paused at that point, as if awaiting a reaction.

Lincoln realised that these people never really conversed at all.  They used the facade of giving informatio
n to gain information.  This Guardian
was undoubtedly learning infinitely more from them, from every minute muscular movement of their faces, perhaps even from changes in their surrounding electric and magnetic fields.  Even now this creature might be registering the effects of the tiny electric currents within their brains, seeing through their wishes and plans, their fears and hopes.  What tiny fraction of such a vast mind was needed to carry on an intelligent conversation?  And what could the rest of that mind accomplish during so superficially harmless an occupation?  Yet why be so suspicious?  After all,
f
or all their unquestionable power they
had always
acted with complete diplomacy and courtesy.  Such were the arguments raging in Lincoln's mind.  The two sides warred with one another, and he wondered whether the
Guardian
was perhaps watching the whole process, and knowing all along what the outcome of his internal strife would be.

No one spoke, so at length the Guardian continued.  "We have discovered that over a
very
brief
period in prehistory development along our planned lines
came to an abrupt halt
and continued
in
an
altogether more
sinister
direction
.
 
For an as yet unknown reason, after a long period
of successful expansion, the
new genetic structure in the
modified
human
stock
changed quite dramatically and dangerously, and spread throughout the human race.
  It was as if a very selective
mutation
attacked and altered the changed genes
, but
it is inconceivably unlikely that
a
random mutation
could
act so
selec
tively
.  Alternatively, and
much
more worryingl
y
,
it could have been an unpredicted outcome of the
changes themselves
, something that was
built in without our knowledge from the very start.  That is the most likely possibility, and it is one that we find quite frightening
, both for your sakes and for ours.  For you it means that our intervention has severely damaged your chances of survival
as a race
, and for us it means that our understanding is far less than we though
t
.
  It has severely shaken our confidence.
"

Lincoln
mulled over this new information
.  The entire human race, and indeed more personally he himself, was the product of alien inter
ference
.  All our modern sophistication, our civilisation, our science and technology, everything of which we were most proud, was a terrible and dangerous mistake.  So there really are gods after all, he pondered silently.
Gods that aren't as smart as they thought they were.

"This event
," continued the Guardian, "
lies at the root of your
major
imbalance as an intelligent species.
  From that time on the distortions in your development became ever more severe.  Whatever happened then planted the seeds of self-destruction into your race, and you have been living with t
hem, at your peril, ever since.