Raymond E. Banks

“ I was sitting in the dining-bar of the Thousand Lights, in New York, watching Kelly as the woman walked into the bar. There was a ripple, an undercurrent of sensation. Not because of the way she looked, not because of her dress, but because she was an Ideal. People hate Ideals. The better-looking they are the more they are hated, and this one was right on top. ”

“ Kelly—dead out on the Stardust Overdrive—among the red and blue times and the ringing ideal bells! It was a little too far off and rich, even for me.
"I was thinking of going back to Scolaris myself," I said bitterly. "And maybe fighting."
"You would fight," said Radwick. "You would die. An ideal must always kill an imperfect man who cannot reach it. Sometimes it is Kelly or the millions of Kellys physically dead in war. Sometimes it is only a part of a man that an ideal kills." ”

“ Treat yourself to a thrill—the biggest in the cosmos. I've found the answer I was looking for, Radwick, the thing you haven't been able to find with all your mathematical cube symbols. Men stay on the Stardust Overdrive and with an Ideal only because they choose a fantasy life to reality. They think they have it better out there on Scolaris. Better? They fight and die just as they would on Earth. The rub comes in when you realize you're only being a sucker for another race—doing what the Scolarians want you to do so they don't have to do it all by themselves. ”

“ The Scolarians are all fine people, generous, loving, determined. They respect one another; they never let you down. The women of Scolaris that we call Ideals, once they fall for a man, Scolarian or earth-like, are forever faithful and one hundred per cent in love with you. To me the whole race is perfect good fighting the perfect evil of the Philosterians. I want to join that fight, Al. Only here on the Stardust Overdrive do the true whites and blacks of good and evil exist. ”

“ For they always brought back an Ideal—a beautiful woman on the surface, and seemingly one who was a reflection of their every wish or desire—an Ideal. Human? As far as Earth science could determine. But science and deep space were light years apart and perhaps would always be that way for the men who went out there never talked about it much when they came back. Why? Why!
What made them hate it—like Kelly? And what made them have to return? What turned a happy man into a miserable prisoner? Why didn't Kelly quit the Stardust Overdrive? ”

“ If you liked some idea—freedom, equal rights, the dignity of man, there was always some person or some institution around that spoiled it. You were always striving for some perfection and yet you knew you could never reach it. ”

“ Kelly took his own drink and threw it in the pretty Irish face of the redhead, whipped away from the stool and was gone. I caught a glimpse of his face as he went past and it was frightening. It was the face of a man who can never get drunk again, who can never really sleep again. You took one look at him and knew he'd been in deep space on the Stardust Overdrive, but it seemed queer to see the look on a familiar face.
My own insides felt cold. First Kelly made the moon. Then I did. Then I made Mars. Then he did. Then he went on the Stardust Overdrive ... and came back with his Ideal.... ”

“ Sandy jumped up so fast that she knocked over a water glass.
"Please, Al, please—"
But it was too late. I saw her glorious hair fade into a dull, ordinary mass. Her arms thickened, her breasts got smaller. Her body shifted under the dress with realistic imperfections. ”