"But I'm curious about the green space fields," persisted Russ.
"Simple," said Craven. "They were just fields that had more energy
packed into a certain portion of space than space could take. Space
fields that had far more than their share of energy, more than they
could hold. A super-saturated solution will crystalize almost
immediately onto the tiniest crystal put into it. Those fields acted the
same way. They crystalized instantly into hyper-space the moment they
came into contact with other energy, whether as photons of radiation,
matter or other space fields. Your anti-entropy didn't stand a chance
under those conditions. When they crystalized, they took a chunk of the
field along with them, a small chunk, but one after another they ate a
hole right through your screen."
* * * * *
"Something like that would have a commercial value," said Greg. "Useful
in war, too, and now that mankind has taken to space, now that we're
spreading out, we must think of possible attack. There must be life on
other planets throughout the Galaxy. Someday they'll come. If they
don't, someday we'll go to them. And we may need every type of armament
we can get our hands on."
Chambers knocked the ash off his cigar and was staring out the vision
port. The ship had swung so that through the port could be seen the
distant star toward which the _Interplanetarian_ had been driving.
"For my part," said Chambers, slowly, measuring each word, "you can have
those findings of ours. We'll give them to you, knowing you will use
them as they should be used. Craven can tell you how they work. That is,
if Craven wants to. He is the man who developed them."
"Certainly," said Craven. "They'll be something to remember us by."
* * * * *
"But you are coming back with us, aren't you?" asked Greg.
Craven shook his head. "No, I'm going with Chambers. I don't know what
he's thinking of, but whatever it is, it's all right with me. We've been
together too long. I'd miss someone to fight with."
Chambers was still staring out the vision port. He was talking, but he
did not seem to be talking to them.
"I had a dream, you see. I saw the people struggling against the
inefficiency and stupidity of popular government. I saw the periodic
rise of bad leaders. I saw them lead the people into blunders. I read
history and I saw that since the time man had risen from the ape, this
had been going on. So I proposed to give the people scientific
government ... a business administration. An administration that would
have run the government exactly as a successful businessman runs his
business. The people would have resented it if I had told them they
didn't know how to run their affairs. There was only one way to do
it ... gain control and force it down their throats."
Chambers was no longer a beaten man, no longer a man with a white
bandage around his head and his power stripped from him. Once again he
was the fighting financier who had sat back at the desk in the
Interplanetary building on Earth and issued orders ... orders that sped
across millions of miles of space.
He shrugged his shoulders. "They didn't want it. Man doesn't want to
live under scientific government. He doesn't want to be protected
against blunders. He wants what he calls freedom. The right to do the
things he wants to do, even if it means making a damn fool of himself.
The right to rise to great heights and tumble to equally low depths.
That's human nature and I ruled it out. But you can't rule out human
nature."
They sat in silence, no one speaking. Russ cupped his pipe bowl in his
hand and watched Chambers. Chambers leaned back and slowly puffed at
the cigar. Greg just sat, his face unchanging.