'Let's not get into that right now,' said Jay. 'You'll just upset yourself. Everyone else has left. Maybe we should be leaving, too.'
He looked around the empty lounge, made a motion to get up. She reached for his arm and held him there.
'I've been thinking about it,' she said. 'I've been wondering if this place of mine is what is left after everything is gone. When the universe is gone. The few good things left over, the worthwhile things left over. The things we have never valued enough. We or any of the others out there. The peace, the love, the holiness. These are the things, I think, that will survive.'
T don't know, Mary. God, how could I know.'
'I hope it is,' she said. T so hope it is. I have a feeling that it is. I go so much on feeling. In the place I found, you have to depend on what you feel. There is nothing else. Just the feeling. Do you ever depend on feeling, Jay?'
'No, I don't,' he told her. He got to his feet, put out a hand to help her up. 'Do you know,' he said, 'that you are beautiful and crazy.'
Suddenly he bent double getting the handkerchief to his face barely in time to catch the sneeze.
'Poor Jay,' she said. 'You still have your allergy.'
VIII
Martin settled himself before the console, shoved the helmet more comfortably into place. The helmet was a nuisance, but he had to wear it, for it was the mechanism that fed the information into the data banks.
— Einstein, are you there? he asked.
— 1 am here, said Einstein, ready to begin. You have your allergy again. Are you ingesting chemicals?
— Yes. And they don't help a lot.
— We sorrow for you greatly.
— I thank you very much, said Martin.
— When last we quit, we were discussing…
— A moment, Einstein. I have a question. -Ask.
— It has nothing to do with what we were discussing. It's a question I long have wanted to ask and never had the courage.
— Ask.
— For a long time, we have been talking about faster-than-light and I am not understanding. You've been patient with me. You overlook my stupidity. Still willing to keep on, when at times it must seem hopeless to you. I want to ask you why. Why are you willing to keep on?
— Simple, Einstein said. You help us. We help you.
— But I haven't helped you.
— Yes, you have. You recall occasion first we took notice of your allergy?
— That was a long time ago.
— We asked you can you do anything to help it. And you say a term at the time we do not know.
— Medicine?
— That was it. We asked you, medicine? And you explain. Chemicals you say. Chemicals we know.
— Yes, I guess I did say that.
— Medicine-chemicals entirely new to us. Never heard of them. Never thought of them.
— You mean you had no idea of medicine?
— Correct. Affirmative. Had no idea, ever.
— But, you never asked me about it. I would have been willing to tell you.
— We did ask. Now and then we asked. Very briefly, very carefully. So you would not know.
— Why? Why briefly? Why carefully?
— So great a thing. Too big to share with others. Now I see we misjudge you. I am very sorry.
— You should be, Martin said. I thought you were my friend.
— Friend, of course, but even among friends…
— You were willing to tell of faster-than-light.
— No great thing. Many others have it. Very simple, once you catch it.
— I'm glad to hear you say so. How are you doing on medicine?
— Slowly, but some progress. Things we need to know.
— So go ahead and ask. said Martin.
IX
Thomas looked questioningly across the desk at Martin.
'You mean to tell me, Jay, that Einstein's people had never thought of medicine. That they know chemistry and had never thought of medicine?'
'Well, it's not quite that simple,' said Martin. They have a hang-up. Their bodies are sacred. Temples of their souls. Einstein didn't actually say that; it is my interpretation of what he said. But, anyhow, their bodies are sacred and they don't tamper with them.'
'In that case, they'll have a hell of a time selling medicine to their public.'
'I suppose so. But with Einstein and some of his fellows, that's different. An elite clique, I gather, standing above the general public, perhaps a bit contemptuous of the public, not sharing all the superstitions the general public holds. Willing, even anxious, to pick up what might be considered iconoclastic ideas. Willing, at least, to have a try at them. With the forces of the old beliefs and prejudices bearing on them, however, it's not to be wondered at that they never thought of medicine.'
They're willing to let you tell them about it?'
'Anxious. Strangely excited about it — a sort of nervous excitement. As if they know they're doing wrong, but are going to do it anyhow. All I can give them, of course, is the basic thinking on medicine. They'll have to work out the details themselves, adapting them to their situation. I gave them what I could today. I'll have to bone up on the theory of medicine to give them much more. There should be material in the library.'
'I'm sure there is,' said Thomas.
'I thought for a while I'd lost Einstein. I told him that to develop medicine they'd have to know about their bodies…'
'And since their bodies are sacred…'
Martin nodded. That's the idea, exactly. Einstein asked how they'd get to know about their bodies and I said dissection. I told him what dissection was and that was when I thought I'd blown it. He was getting more than he asked for, more than he really wanted, and a lot of it he didn't like. But he was a man about it; he gulped and gagged somewhat and finally came to terms with it. It appears he is a devoted soul. Once he gets his teeth into something, he hangs onto it.'
'You think he and the rest of his clique will go ahead with it?'
'I'm not sure, Paul. I think so. He tended to wax a bit philosophical about it. Trying to talk himself more firmly into the idea of going ahead with it. And while he was doing this, I was wondering how many similar hang-ups we may have that makes it hard or impossible to use some of the ideas we may get. Here is this advanced culture, a forward-looking society, and yet an old obsession that probably dates back to primordial times has made it impossible for them to come up with the concept of medicine.'
'Our own history of medicine,' said Thomas, 'is not too dissimilar. We had to sweep away a lot of superstition and wrong thinking before we could get even a decent start in the healing art.'
'I suppose so,' said Martin. 'But, dammit, the whole thing makes me feel good. If Einstein goes ahead with it, and I think he will, it means we've been of some use. Like I said last night, we may be beginning to pay our dues.
