"Could we duplicate that for all your people, Tak Laleen?" Gill asked
doubtfully.
"Yes, I'm sure we could, Gill. We have a clue; we know what has to be
done. And we have an experimental laboratory." The missionary nodded
toward the mob of cringing Almost-men coming in from the preserve. "We
have a city of people, disorganized by panic, with their faith in the
machine already shattered. While we teach these people how to make the
reorientation, we'll learn the methods that will work most effectively
with my world."
* * * * *
They left the city and began to cross the bridge toward the treaty
area. Tak Laleen passed her arms through theirs. She said, with sorrow
in her voice, "No matter what we do, no matter how carefully we try
to cushion the panic, we still have no way of being entirely sure of
the results. Something that works with our prisoners or with us might
destroy my world; it could send a planet into mass paranoia."
"That risk is implied in all learning, Tak Laleen," Lanny answered.
"We can never escape it. I'm not sure we ought to try. The individual
who lives in a closed world of absolutes--shut in by prison walls of
his own mind--is already insane. The sudden development of a new idea
simply makes the condition apparent."
"In a sense," Gill added, "there is no such thing as a teacher. There
are people who expose us to data and try to demonstrate some techniques
we can use, but any learning that goes on must come from within
ourselves."
"We will develop the most effective method we can," Lanny said. "Then
we will apply it to your world, Tak Laleen. The rest is up to them.
That's as it should be--as it must be."
Arm in arm they crossed the bridge--two men and a missionary from
an alien world. They had been enemies, but during a night of chaos
and death they had learned to become men--the first men to catch the
vision of the new world of the mind. Each of them was soberly aware
that the discovery was not an end, but a beginning. And they faced
that beginning with neither fear nor regret, because they had the
confidence that comes of maturity. The unknown was not a god-power or a
devil-power, but a problem to be solved by the skill of a rational mind.