Albert Teichner

“ The Probe was down to 14 thousand, moving smoothly, and the Commander sympathetically patted the semanticist's shoulder. "There's no call on your specialty, that's what's worrying you. Mustn't go introspective on us now, eh?"
"I'm not sure I mustn't, sir," he stood firm. "But I won't."
"Good enough. In the final analysis the doing's what counts, I always say, not the thinking."
He leaned over the navigation screen, propping himself on his two stiffly outstretched arms, and Stern knew he was no longer there for Linder, not while the Commander concentrated on the problem of landing the Probe. ”

“ Linder broke in. "Fine analysis jobs our psychology people are doing these days! They're supposed to weed out every fearmonger before a hyperspace team takes off." He leaned toward Stern, all his frustrations finally achieving a point of focus. "You'll never get another expedition if we make it back. Get this straight—my job isn't primarily to protect our hides. It's to make obvious to our hosts that Glia Council is supreme everywhere, the one, ultimate institution for maintaining stability throughout the Galaxy." ”

“ Linder gave a sour laugh as he moved down the catwalk, throwing one communication circuit after another to ON position. "I imagine they're going to play very coy before we wangle an answer out of them—but not because they're indifferent, Stern. It's impossible for people to be indifferent to their fellows—cooperation or hate, those are the two possibilities, and Nodar alone refuses to cooperate. Why should they be indifferent? What could they have to develop beside the universe of people around them?" ”

“ He turned to Linder and Barnes. "As I said before to you, you're really not ready yet for what we are hoping to tell you and we have our own work to continue, work that will never menace anyone. Some day, in fact, gratitude will ring from one end of the Galaxy to the other."
"But I don't see," Stern wondered aloud, "why you have to withdraw from contact with all the other planets if your plans are so innocuous." ”

“ Council will be receiving all our information on the fastest hyperspace beam unless and until Nodar cuts us off. Now let's get the job done!"
Stern was the first to applaud and every man there followed suit. They had spent a gruelling three months at speeds far beyond that of light and were impatient to be finished with the assignment. Their eyes gleamed with barely-suppressed anger as Linder started calling Nodar. "We are from Supreme Council. We wish to land. Our mission is charity but we insist on the right to land." ”

“ For the last few centuries we've been in this phase and it has given us the power to spread across the Galaxy and assure one common level of humanity everywhere. Individual and social consciousness interacting—what, we have wondered, would be the next stage to arise from it? But we have done everything to prevent the next stage because we feared any one planet developing along unique lines, lines that might end in a threat to the rest of us. Nodar deliberately isolated itself to be temporarily unique. ”

“ Stern hastily filled the gap. "I'm official semanticist for the expedition," he said, himself disconcerted by the brief flicker of something like disdain at one corner of Jackson's smile. "Well, I can see my services in that capacity won't be essential here—." "—certainly not," Barnes boomed. "—but I would like to say we have come here principally to ascertain whether you are in any difficulties which the combined resources of Glia's Council might help you face."
"We in any difficulties!" Jackson laughed. "We need no other planet's help. How could you help us?" ”

“ You enter a well-lighted room. In one corner two men are seated, playing chess. In another corner two men are repairing a machine. When you look at the chess players the machine repairers are barely visible in the corner of your eye. If you concentrate on the chess situation, you learn close to nothing about the repair work. And when you concentrate on the repair work the chess game fades out."
"So what?" Linder demanded. ”

“ Crawford nodded. His eyes widened with horror. "They don't think that way at all! They were listening at the spaceport to musics and they see all these different things happening on the screen at the same time and follow it, don't they?"
"Which gives them the capacity to learn anything at tremendous speed," said Stern. "Take manually driving a ground vehicle. We learn one operation until we can do it automatically, unthinkingly, then we learn another operation to the same point, reinforcing our first knowledge with the new acquirement, and so on. ”

“ Crawford whispered to Stern.
"Looks like it could be," Stern agreed. "You can't adequately control thinking robots without area computers mediating their activities. But still—there's never been a robot revolt. Maybe something else peculiar explains—"
Jackson who had been listening to music on an ear set turned around and said, "Of course you can control them without area computers. I mean, we can. Anyway we don't need so many robots now." ”

“ He quickly slipped the reel onto the projector and, setting it for a very slow speed, turned the machine on. The screen showed the usual Nodarian television blur.
"There you are," Barnes said, "a complete waste of time!"
Disregarding him, Stern twisted the speed dial into slower and slower positions; all the while watching the screen. Suddenly, as projection speed came down to six percent of the speed at which it had originally been received, they all gasped. ”

“ Linder snorted, beside himself with disgust. "It must be half out!"
The eight men gaped at the machine, standard spaceport size, that covered one wall. Here and there dial plates had fallen away, revealing disrupted wire circuits. "In the name of Council," Linder snapped, "I'm telling you to get that Thinker fixed."
"Oh, it's in good enough shape," Jackson yawned. "We don't need the whole thing functioning." ”

“ Jackson grinned. "Yes, slightly. Your manners as a guest have been very bad. You have been childishly annoyed by what you cannot understand and you will be childishly treated, all of you except the man who has been talking a little more sensibly to me." With that he easily picked the Commander up, fell back into a chair and turned Linder over to give him a few sharp whacks. While Stern looked on helplessly, others grabbed Barnes and the rest, in each case administering a brief spanking. ”

“ A few minutes later they were back in normal space, coasting on Nodar's landing beam. "Doesn't make sense," Stern insisted. "The beam's perfectly clear yet every other signal we've picked up is a complete garble."
"I told you—they were just throwing sand in our eyes."
"But Barnes says the garbles were all ground-to-ground signals, thousands of different ones and none for us. They still know standard Galactese when they speak directly to us." ”

“ Linder nodded and pointed at Barnes. "Your team will keep communications open and we'll get data back to Terra as long as we can."
The stubby man saluted smartly and left with his five aides for Message Center.
"Go down to 18,000, sir?" Crawford asked. "18.9 should give us the best descent trajectory."
"First I'll notify them. We're dealing with a touchy bunch. An unannounced hyperdrive boom might send them into some nasty defense scramble." He spoke into his wrist microphone. "Hello, Nodar. Hello, Nodar. This is Commander Linder speaking, Linder of the Probe. ”

“ Glia missions have always been peaceful and to help our fellows. But there is such a thing as carrying matters too far and you Nodarians are threatening to do it with your disrespect for what we represent! ”

“ Every time I reach baker there'll be a change. If I say left baker man only your left will reverse its rotation. Or I may say right baker man. Or I may not indicate a hand and then you'll reverse rotation for both. Then when I say change baker man, put the right hand where the left is and vice versa and continue the same rotation as before the command—that is, if the right hand was above your head, going clockwise, when I say change, your left hand, as soon as it's shifted above your head, will turn clockwise."
Crawford hesitantly got up, crowding the little cabin until Stern sat down. ”