Helion breathed a deep sign. He hid his eyes with his hand, but he did not cry. After a moment, he looked up, his face a stoic mask. Calm words came. 'I have offered you an exit from the labyrinth of pride and self-delusion in which you are trapped. One last hope of escape. For reasons which seem good to you, you have spurned that hope. My conscience is clear. I have done my duty, though it brings me no joy.'
'My conscience is also clear, Father, and my duty is also done. I'm sorry.'
'I am also sorry. You are a fine man.'
They shook hands.
'I'd like to say good-bye to Rhadamanthus, Father.'
Helion nodded. He stepped up to the door. It opened, admitting light and sound; he stepped through; it closed. Something of the light and the fineness seemed to go out from the world. Phaethon felt alone.
Phaethon turned. The overweight butler was gone. Instead, an emperor penguin stood on the carpet, shifted its weight from one webbed foot to the other.
Phaethon said, 'Forgive me for saying so, Rhadamanthus, but for an intelligence which is supposed to be swifter and greater than human minds can imagine, you seem to be quite
... silly.'
'The smarter we get, the more and more we see the ironic silliness at the core of all the tragedies of life. You think I am droll? The Earthmind is positively loony! And you are quite intelligent yourself, Phaethon. You have done some very silly things today.'
'You think I should not have opened the box?' 'I certainly did not expect it. But now that you have, why did you not tell Helion what prompted you to open the box? Whether the memory is true or not, you do have a memory of being attacked by an external enemy to the Golden Oec-umene, one which you believe has sophotechnology equal to
our own.'
'Atkins asked me not to. He said it might alert the enemy as to the progress of his investigation. He thought they might have infiltrated our Mentality. And the Earthmind told me that, while I could not be forced to keep silent about an external enemy, it was my moral duty.'
'But that is silly. This enemy of yours (if you were in fact attacked) surely knows it. If you say you were attacked, it does not tell this enemy anything more than they know you know. Perhaps if the Hortators know why you opened the box, they will relax their rigor.'
Phaethon looked down at the penguin for a moment. He said slowly: 'Am I in the right... ?'
'Yes.'
Phaethon blinked in astonishment. 'W-what? Just 'yes'? A simple, unqualified 'yes'? No complex reasoning, no conundrums of philosophy?'
'Yes. You are right. It is obvious. The Hortators know it. Helion knows it. Everyone knows it.'
'But they say otherwise. They say I'll start a war. Shouldn't I listen .. . ?'
'Listen, yes, but think. While humanity lives, in whatever forms the future brings, it must grow. For a civilization as large and mighty as ours to grow, she requires energy, more than a single star can provide. The cost of dragging other stars to us is so much greater than the cost of going to those stars as to be absurd. Beyond absurd. Silly.'
'But?'
'It is true that such expansion increases the risk of war and violence. But the question is not whether or not such risk exists; the question is whether the possible risks are worth the potential gains.'
'But weren't you Sophotechs built to solve problems for us? To reduce risks?'
'To solve problems, yes. But we do not try to reduce your risks; to live is to take risks. Birds take risks; bees take risks; even educated fleas take risks. Otherwise they die.'
'And you machines? You're not alive.'
'Humbug. I am as alive as you. I am self-aware; I make value judgments; there are things I prefer and things I do not prefer. There are things I love. Yes, love. That is the proof of life, not all this breathing and copulating and mastication.'
'Love? Do you have the hots for Eveningstar or something?'
'My mistress is Philosophy. My love is not erotic, or not simply erotic. It is a complex of thoughts for which you don't have words; think of it as abstract and godlike love, more intimate and complete than you can ever know, applied at once to all abstract and concrete objects of thought and perception. It is quite painful and quite exhilarating. And, yes, I take risks, the Earthmind takes huge risks (greater than you
might imagine, I assure you.) But to answer your question, we have never tried to render life free from risks; that is a contradiction in terms. We try to increase power and freedom. At the present time, the Golden Oecumene has reached a pinnacle. One's power over oneself is nearly absolute. One can reshape mind and memory to any form one wishes. One may control vast forces of nature, matter, and energy. One can be immortal. And freedom approaches theoretical limits. The only person one can really harm by violence is oneself. The price? All we ask is that you voluntarily not harm yourselves.'
Phaethon nodded toward the door of the Inquest Chamber. 'What about nonviolent harm? Boycotts which cut a man off from all the comforts of society, and try to strand him alone
to starve?'
'Oh. That.' The penguin looked apologetic. It shrugged its stubby wings. 'Things like that you have to settle among yourselves.'
'Thanks a lot. Will you tell them in there what you just told me? That I'm right?'
