was like that in real life.
The talk was mostly small talk, and I did almost none of it.
"So, tell me, what's your world like?" Mayar Eldrith asked Bill Markham.
"A stroke seven world, sir," Bill replied pleasantly.
"Oh, yes-atomic weapons, superpowers, big and littlewars," Mukasa put in. "An interesting world. Not at all boring."
Bill choked down what he might really wanna say. "Yes, sir, it is definitely interesting. You've been to a stroke seven?"
Mukasa chuckled. "Long ago, when I was very young. They were fighting a big conventional war then, and there were lots of diseases and abysmal ignorance about them. I remember that. I suppose it must have been your world, since that's the only stroke seven we've developed for many years so far. Who won that war, anyway?"
"Depends on which one it was. If it was a world war, then it was probably the U.S., England, and Russia against Germany, Italy, and Japan. The U.S. side won. Now they and the Germans, Italians, and Japanese are on the same side and the Russians on the other."
"Fascinating," Hanrin put in. "I should like to see a full-blown war one day-from a safe distance, of course."
"They're very destructive and not very pretty or glamorous," Sam couldn't help but put in. "In fact, they're the ugliest side of human nature."
"Perhaps, but they are incredibly valuable. Progress and inventiveness accelerate a hundredfold during a war. Most great inventions and ideas come out of them, you know. I fear it is the nature of the human beast and just as necessary to him as love."
"I notice there haven't been any wars here," Sam noted, a little ticked off at this.
Mayar Eldrith sensed Sam's irritation. "Come, come! Yes, you're right, we don't have wars here, but we're a pretty static culture because of it. Our progress comes from what we learn from others. Still, we are not ignorant of the horrors and cost of wars. The Labyrinth came out of a war, in fact-the last war fought on this Earth between our people. In point of fact, it was terribly ugly. It destroyed in the end all human life on this planet. Only a small band of brave pioneers managed to escape through the Labyrinth, a very primitive thing then, and wait it out. When they were at last able to return, they found a wasteland. All that you see-the animals, trees, flowers, everything-they imported from other worlds. They redesigned the entireplanet into a garden, and they swore that never again would violence sear us. Out of that came the Corporation and the system we now have."
That sorta explained a lot, like why most everybody looked like everybody else. Ten to one that class thing was really who was related to who when they came back. That was more'n a thousand years ago, but if they lived a couple hundred years plus each it was to them like maybe the World Wars were to us.
"Ancient history," muttered Basuti, the cold fish and also youngest at fifty-seven. "We're too damned fat and lazy for our own good, I say. No discipline, no motivation. We've become a bunch of whores, that's what."
"Now, Alim, don't start that again," Dringa Lakuka put in. He turned to us. "Basuti, there, was a priest and holy man until his older brother was killed in an accident, forcing him to assume obligations in the real world. I think he'd only be happy if we turned the entire world into a monastery."
"Many of us here would be far better off if we were closer to the gods than the flesh," Basuti muttered, giving the eye to Mukasa and his girlfriend.
"We strive for balance on committees as vital as this one," said Mayar Eldrith, clearing his throat nervously. "1 humbly suggest that we confine ourselves to pleasantries for now. Our disagreements are none of these people's affair, nor their concern. What concerns us is whether or not we are vulnerable to evil. Someone very powerful has gone to a great deal of trouble to import this alien organism and test it. We must know why. It surely isn't to take over a mere Earth or two. Anyone with
The talk was mostly small talk, and I did almost none of it.
"So, tell me, what's your world like?" Mayar Eldrith asked Bill Markham.
"A stroke seven world, sir," Bill replied pleasantly.
"Oh, yes-atomic weapons, superpowers, big and littlewars," Mukasa put in. "An interesting world. Not at all boring."
Bill choked down what he might really wanna say. "Yes, sir, it is definitely interesting. You've been to a stroke seven?"
Mukasa chuckled. "Long ago, when I was very young. They were fighting a big conventional war then, and there were lots of diseases and abysmal ignorance about them. I remember that. I suppose it must have been your world, since that's the only stroke seven we've developed for many years so far. Who won that war, anyway?"
"Depends on which one it was. If it was a world war, then it was probably the U.S., England, and Russia against Germany, Italy, and Japan. The U.S. side won. Now they and the Germans, Italians, and Japanese are on the same side and the Russians on the other."
"Fascinating," Hanrin put in. "I should like to see a full-blown war one day-from a safe distance, of course."
"They're very destructive and not very pretty or glamorous," Sam couldn't help but put in. "In fact, they're the ugliest side of human nature."
"Perhaps, but they are incredibly valuable. Progress and inventiveness accelerate a hundredfold during a war. Most great inventions and ideas come out of them, you know. I fear it is the nature of the human beast and just as necessary to him as love."
"I notice there haven't been any wars here," Sam noted, a little ticked off at this.
Mayar Eldrith sensed Sam's irritation. "Come, come! Yes, you're right, we don't have wars here, but we're a pretty static culture because of it. Our progress comes from what we learn from others. Still, we are not ignorant of the horrors and cost of wars. The Labyrinth came out of a war, in fact-the last war fought on this Earth between our people. In point of fact, it was terribly ugly. It destroyed in the end all human life on this planet. Only a small band of brave pioneers managed to escape through the Labyrinth, a very primitive thing then, and wait it out. When they were at last able to return, they found a wasteland. All that you see-the animals, trees, flowers, everything-they imported from other worlds. They redesigned the entireplanet into a garden, and they swore that never again would violence sear us. Out of that came the Corporation and the system we now have."
That sorta explained a lot, like why most everybody looked like everybody else. Ten to one that class thing was really who was related to who when they came back. That was more'n a thousand years ago, but if they lived a couple hundred years plus each it was to them like maybe the World Wars were to us.
"Ancient history," muttered Basuti, the cold fish and also youngest at fifty-seven. "We're too damned fat and lazy for our own good, I say. No discipline, no motivation. We've become a bunch of whores, that's what."
"Now, Alim, don't start that again," Dringa Lakuka put in. He turned to us. "Basuti, there, was a priest and holy man until his older brother was killed in an accident, forcing him to assume obligations in the real world. I think he'd only be happy if we turned the entire world into a monastery."
"Many of us here would be far better off if we were closer to the gods than the flesh," Basuti muttered, giving the eye to Mukasa and his girlfriend.
"We strive for balance on committees as vital as this one," said Mayar Eldrith, clearing his throat nervously. "1 humbly suggest that we confine ourselves to pleasantries for now. Our disagreements are none of these people's affair, nor their concern. What concerns us is whether or not we are vulnerable to evil. Someone very powerful has gone to a great deal of trouble to import this alien organism and test it. We must know why. It surely isn't to take over a mere Earth or two. Anyone with
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