“And the Supreme Commandant of Phrygia?”
“Suicided shortly after our return from the Dawnworlds. I am the only person alive who knows their location. I burned the star chart showing it. The galaxy being as large as it is, it could take a millenium to locate them without my assistance.”
His eyes narrowed. “But, once again, how do you know about these things, the names of Birdman and the Supreme Commandant?”
Max said softly, “You left out one survivor of your adventure, Ronny Bronston. Academician Count Felix Fitzjames. After the destruction of Phrygia he did not commit suicide, as did his late commandant. He eluded your agents and came here to Einstein and requested asylum. It was granted him, in view of the fact that he was an outstanding authority in the field of anthropology.”
Dorn Horsten said coldly, “Where is he now?”
Fredric took over again. “The Academician was an aged man. He is dead.”
Ronny said, “And he revealed to you the location of the Dawnworlds?”
“He couldn’t. He didn’t know. He was an academician, not a navigator. But he told us the story of them and your activities there. We would like to know more. The story is fascinating.”
“That, it is,” Ronny said flatly. “It is also the most restricted story in United Planets. Not even my superiors know the location of those worlds. They don’t want to. It must never get out and each additional person who knows a secret makes it that much more difficult to keep it.”
Barbara, frowning slightly, said, “You of Section G seem to make an awfully big issue of this. Why?”
“Because we’re afraid to death that some crackpot element will find out where they’re located and go there and, as a result, doom the whole human race.” He looked from one of them to the other, slowly, deliberately. “So I am not about to reveal the location of the Dawnworlds, even to citizens of the planet Einstein, no matter what their Intelligence Quotient. Someone, a long time ago, pointed out that high intelligence is no guarantee of high integrity. Some of the most intelligent people who ever lived were also ambitious. The Medicis and Borgias of the Renaissance were admittedly brilliant. So was Napoleon, or he wouldn’t have been the military genius he proved himself to be. No, intelligence is no guarantee of integrity, nor even a guarantee of correct decision. According to our racial legends, an omniscient God created man. A mistake if I ever heard of one.”
They laughed dutifully.
Marvin said, “Academician Fitzjames informed us that the, ah, Brahmins of the Dawnworld you landed upon had, evidently telepathically, determined that your life had been shortened and, wishing to keep you alive so that you could warn others off, still, evidently, through nothing more than a telepathic contact, then extended your life for over two hundred years. In short, they have the elixir of life, as the old alchemists used to call it.”
Ronny said, “Whether or not my life has been extended for over two hundred years, I don’t know. I’ll have to wait it out. However, it is true that my aging fifteen or twenty years overnight did not happen, though, as a result of a drug I took, it should have. But now, I’ll answer no more questions about the Dawnworlds. The information is taboo. Far from warning others off, as the Brahmins wished, it was decided by Ross Metaxa not even to let others know they exist, let alone their location.”
Boy got up from the floor and stretched and said, “You humans sure do a lot of yakking. I think I’ll go get something to eat.” He headed for the dining room and Ronny and Dorn looked after him for a moment, blankly.
Two or three of the others laughed, especially when the dog’s voice came back, ordering a steak for himself at the automated table.
Ronny muttered, “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”
Dorn Horsten pushed his pince nez glasses back on the bridge of his nose and said, “To get back to the workings of the planet Einstein.”
“Yes, of course,” Fredric said.
“We were informed at the Octagon that, when you colonized, the basic requirement was an I.Q. of at least 130. After all these years, what is the average today?”
Fredric frowned before saying slowly, “We no longer use the I.Q. system for measuring intelligence. We couldn’t, even if we wished. In the I.Q. system, what would have happened if a child answered correctly all 100 of the questions in the required time?”
Ronny said, “What methods did you utilize to upgrade your mental and physical attributes?”
Fredric said, “I am not a geneticist. However, briefly, from earliest youth a child is checked out not only for its physical attributes but its—I.Q. you would call it—and its ability quotient.”
“Ability quotient?” Dorn said.
“Ability quotient is the child’s performance in verbal ability, verbal fluency, numerical ability, spatial ability, perceptual ability, memory, accident proneness, digital dexterity, analogizing power, mechanical aptitude, clerical aptitude, emotional maturity, tone discrimination, taste sensitivity, sexual attraction, color blindness, accuracy, persistence, freedom from neurosis, and powers of observation.”
Ronny whistled softly between his teeth.
Fredric went on. “At the age of fifteen if the child does not check out at least five percent higher than its parents in intelligence and ability quotient, it is sterilized by the Medical Department of Genetics. We wish to take no chances of the child’s genes continuing.”
Both Dorn and Ronny blinked a bit at that one, but Dorn said, “You utilize other methods?”
“Yes, truly outstanding examples of our males have their sperm frozen and it is used over a period of time to artificially inseminate outstanding females.”
“Your methods seem somewhat drastic,” Dorn said thoughtfully. “However, it is an internal matter and I rather doubt that it would be grounds to prevent you from becoming a member of United Planets.”
Max said, “I think that something should be pointed out to our visitors. Our, mmm, I.Q.’s aren’t as high as all that. You see, we started with a minimum of 130 and a median of, perhaps, 140 and by carefully breeding up the average five percent each generation, eliminating those who didn’t upgrade, and utilizing artificial insemination from the ultra-high, each generation would develop. However, it takes little mathematics to show that in four generations, a century roughly, the median of 140 would only have increased to about 170 which is not unknown on other worlds of United Planets.”
Ronny said dryly, “But it’s not exactly widespread.”
Barbara said, very earnestly, “You must understand that by utilizing genetic surgery to alter the DNA, as we have done on animals, we could speed up this acceleration. However, we wish to avoid generation gaps. It might be possible, overnight, to up our, uh, l.Q. to a thousand average, compared to the one hundred of Earth. But then, the older generations would not be able to associate with the new. It is one thing communicating with someone who has an l.Q. ten to twenty points higher than yours, but it is another if it is ten times as high.”
Fredric had been looking at the two Section G men unhappily. He said now, “I see that you don’t approve of our methods. I might point out that the need has long been expressed. Plato proposed an eugenic program, saying, ‘In the same way, if we want to prevent the human race from degeneration, we shall take care to encourage union between the better elements of both sexes, and to eliminate that of the worst.’ ”
Darlene put in, “We minimize gene surgery, gene copying, gene insertion and gene deletion. Algeny and genetic engineering we handle with kid gloves. We utilize nature, largely, rather than science and technology to upgrade our people.”
Dorn said, “What surprises me is that we have so little trouble communicating with you. I would never know that we weren’t on Earth or Archimedes or one of the other advanced planets. But surely there is a great intellectual gap between us.”
Marvin said, “We selected not only citizens who spoke Basic and Amer-English but also those who had the widest experience with people from overspace. We six have already had considerable contact, through attending scientific conventions and through the small amount of trade we conduct with other worlds.”
“I see,” Ronny said, self-deprecation in his voice. “You’re especially selected to meet us. Rosemary is stupid, as she put it, and hence better able to communicate with us. You’ve been through the ordeal before, and so are able.”
Fredric was distressed. “You must not think in that manner. See here, Ronny, how would you like to submit to one of our present-day equivalents of an I.Q. test, just to see where you stand as compared to the average Einstein citizen?”
“Hell no,” Ronny said. “It’d probably give me an inferiority complex that’d last the rest of my life.”
