George O. Smith

“ Why are you what you are? Seven times in History Terra has come up from the mud, seven times along the same route. Seven times a history of ten thousand years from savage to savant, from beast to brilliance and always with the same will to do—to do what? To die for what? To fight for what?”
Chelan waved Huvane to take the Terran away.
Huvane said, “He’s locked in air-tight with guards who can be trusted. ”

“ Huvane shrugged. “Seems to me that any Terran locked in a duralim cell so far from home the distance means nothing is already cut from communication.”
“Deeper, deeper, Huvane. The brain lies prisoner within a cell of bone. Its contact with the Outside world lies along five channels of sensory communication. Everything that the brain believes about the Universe is the product of sensory information carried inward by sight, touch, sound, taste and smell. From five basic bits of information, knowledge of the Great Truth is formed through logic and self-argument. ”

“ The big thing is the way they follow the same pattern. Savage, agrarian, urban, right on up the ladder according to the rules of civic science but squabbling and battling all the way right on up and out into space. Hell, Huvane, warfare and conflict I can both understand and cope with, but not the Terran flavor. They don’t come out bent on conquest or stellar colonialism. ”

“ Huvane said, “Gone!” and the sound of his voice re-echoed back and forth across the empty cell.
“Gone,” repeated Chelan. “Utterly incomprehensible, but none the less a fact. But how—? Isolated, alone, imprisoned—cut off from all communication. All communication—?”
“I’ll get another specimen, chief.”
Chelan shook his head. “Seven times we’ve slapped them down. Seven times we’ve watched their rise—and wondered how they did it. Seven times they would have surpassed us if we hadn’t blocked them. Let them rise, let them run the Universe. They’re determined to do that anyway. ”

“ Jerry Markham worried his first worry: How was he going to get the word back home?
Confinement in the metal cell of his top-stage hadn’t bothered him. The concept of landing on a planet that couldn’t come closer to home than some twenty-seven million miles was mere peanuts. Isolation for a year was no more than a hiatus, a period of adventure that would be rewarded many-fold. ”

“ Does the brain dream the dream as a sensory experience—or is a dream no more than a sequence of assorted memories? Would a dying brain expire in pleasure during a pleasant dream—or is the enjoyment of a pleasant dream only available to the after-awakened brain?
What is Man but his Memories?
In one very odd manner, the brain of Jerry Markham retained its intellectual orientation, and realized that its physical orientation was uncontrollable and undetectable and therefore of no importance. ”

“ They come out with their little private fight still going on and each side lines up its volume of influence and pits one against the other until the whole section of that spiral arm is glittering like a sputtering spark along a train of black powder. ”

“ Huvane sat down again and put his hands between his knees.
“They don’t operate like people. Sensible folk settle their own problems, then look for more. Terra? One half of the globe is against the other half of the globe. Fighting one another tooth and nail, they still find time to invent and cross space to other planets and continue their fight on unknown territory.” ”

“ And you know that nobody could make 109 if they hadn’t already evolved methods of measuring the properties of individual atoms. So as soon as they find that their boom-sample doesn’t behave like the standard mess out of a bombardment chamber, they won’t rest until they find out why. ”