Robert Heinlein - Beyond This Horizon

Hamilton looked amazed. "Is that all?"

"Yes."

"You're sure you haven't left anything out?"

"No, of course not."

"Then what, in the Name of the Egg, are you doing here?"

"Nothing. There wasn't anyplace else to go."

"Cliff, you'll be the death of me, yet. Get going. Get started. Get up off that fat thing you're sitting on and get a move on."

"Huh? Where?"

"After her, you bubble-brained idiot! Go find her."

Monroe-Alpha shook his head wearily. "You must not have listened. I tell you I tried to burn her."

Hamilton took a deep breath, let it out, then said, "Listen to me. I don't know much about women, and sometimes it seems like I didn't know anything about them. But I'm sure of this-she won't let a little thing like you taking a pot shot at her stand in the way if you ever had any chance with her at all. She'll forgive you."

"You don't really mean that, do you?" Monroe-Alpha's face was still tragic, but he clutched at the hope.

"Certainly I do. Women will forgive anything." With a flash of insight he added, "Otherwise the race would have died out long ago."

"-then a man is something more than his genes!"

"I CANNOT say," remarked the Honorable Member from Great Lakes Central, "that I place high evaluation on Brother Mordan's argument that this project be taken up to get young Hamilton's consent to propagate. It is true that I am not entirely familiar with the details of the genetic sequence involved-"

"You should be," Mordan cut in somewhat acidly, "I supplied full transcript two days ago."

"I beg your pardon, brother. In those forty-eight hours I have held hearings steadily. The Mississippi Valley matter, you know. It's rather urgent."

"I'm sorry," Mordan apologized. "It's easy for a layman to forget the demands on a Planner's time."

"Never mind. No need for finicky courtesy among ourselves. I scanned the brief and the first sixty pages while we were assembling; that, with such previous knowledge of the case as I had, gives me a rough idea of your problem. But tell me, am I correct in thinking that Hamilton holds nothing exclusively in his chart? You have alternative choices?"

"Yes."

"You expected to finish with his descendent generation- how many generations would be required, using alternative choices?"

"Three additional generations."

"That is what I thought, and that is my reason for disagreeing with your argument. The genetic purpose of the sequence is, I think, of greater importance to the race, but a delay of a hundred years, more or less, is not important-not sufficiently important to justify an undertaking as major as a full effort to investigate the question of survival after death."

"I take it," put in the Speaker for the Day, "that you wish to be recorded as opposing Brother Mordan's proposal?"

"No, Hubert, no. You anticipate me-incorrectly. I am supporting his proposition. Notwithstanding the fact that I consider his reasons, though good, to be insufficient, I evaluate the proposal as worthwhile in itself. I think we should support it fully."

The Member from the Antilles looked up from the book he was reading (not rudeness; everyone present knew that he had parallel mental processes and no one expected him to waste half the use of his time out of politeness) and said, "I think George should amplify his reason."

"I will. We policy men are like a pilot who is attempting to do a careful job of conning his ship without having any idea of his destination. Hamilton has put his finger on the weak point in our whole culture-he should be a planner himself. Every decision that we make, although it is based on data, is shaped by our personal philosophies. The data is examined in the light of these philosophies. How many of you have an opinion about survival-after-death? I ask for a show of hands. Come now, be honest with yourselves." Somewhat hesitantly they put their hands up-men and women alike, every one of them. "Now," the Great Lakes member continued, "the hands of those who are sure that their opinions are correct."

All of the hands went down, save that of the Member from Patagonia. "Bravo!" Rembert of the Lakes called out. "I should have guessed that you would be sure."

She took the cigar out of her mouth, said rather sharply, "Any fool knows that one," and went back to her needlework. She was over a hundred years old, and the only control natural in the Board. Her district had confirmed her tenure regularly for more than fifty years. Her eyesight was thought to be failing, but she had all of her own yellow teeth. Her wrinkled, mahogany features showed more evidence of Indian blood than Caucasian. They all claimed to be a little afraid of her.

"Garvala," Rembert said to her, "perhaps you can cut the matter short by giving us the answer?"

"I can't tell you the answer-and you wouldn't believe me if I did." She was silent for a moment, then added, "Let the boy do as he pleases. He will anyway."

"Do you support or oppose Mordan's proposition?"

"Support. Not that you're likely to go at it right." There was a short silence. Every member in the chamber was hastily trying to recall when, if ever, Carvala had been proven to be on the wrong side of a question-in the long run.

"It would seem obvious to me," Rembert continued, "that the only rational personal philosophy based on a conviction that we die dead, never to rise again, is a philosophy of complete hedonism. Such a hedonist might seek his pleasure in life in very subtle, indirect, and sublimated fashions; nevertheless pleasure must be his only rational purpose-no matter how lofty his conduct may appear to be. On the other hand, the possibility of something more to life than the short span we see opens up an unlimited possibility of evaluations other than hedonistic. It seems to me a fit subject to investigate."

"Granting your point," commented the woman representing the Northwest Union, "is it our business to do so? Our functions and our authority are limited; we are forbidden by constitution to meddle in spiritual matters. How about it, Johann?"

The member addressed was the only priest persona among them, he being the Most Reverend Mediator to some millions of his co-religionists south of the Rio Grande. His political prominence was the more exceptional in that the great majority of his constituents were not of his faith. "I do not see, Geraldine," he replied, "that the constitutional restriction applies. What Brother Mordan proposes is a coldly scientific investigation. Its consequences may have spiritual implications, if there are positive results, but an unbiased investigation is no violation of religious freedom."

"Johann is right," said Rembert. "There is no subject inappropriate for scientific research. Johann, we've let you fellows have a monopoly of such matters for too long. The most serious questions in the world have been left to faith or speculation. It is time for scientists to cope with them, or admit that science is no more than pebble counting."

"Go ahead. I shall be interested in seeing what you can make of them-in laboratories."

Hoskins Geraldine looked at him. "I wonder, Johann, what your attitude will be if this research should turn up facts which controvert some one of your articles of faith?"

"That," he answered imperturbably, "is a matter for me to settle with myself. It need not affect this board."

"I think," observed the Speaker for the Day, "that we might now seek a preliminary expression of opinion. Some support the proposal-are any opposed?" There was no response. "Are any undecided?" There was still no response, but one member stirred slightly. "You wished to speak, Richard?"

"Not yet. I support the proposal, but I will speak to it later."

"Very well. It appears to be unanimous ... It is so ordered. I will co-opt an instigator later. Now, Richard?"