February 15th, 2135.
The day of the Hearings, to consider the charges and petition formally
placed by The Honorable Daniel Fowler, Independent Senator from the
Great State of Illinois. The long oval hearing-room was filling early;
the gallery above was packed by 9:05 in the morning. Teevie-boys all
over the place. The Criterion Committee members, taking their places
in twos and threes--some old, some young, some rejuvenated, some not,
taking their places in the oval. Then the other Senators--not the
President, of course, but he'll be well represented by Senator
Rinehart himself, ah yes. Don't worry about the President.
* * * * *
Bad news in the papers. Trouble in New Chicago, where so much trouble
seems to start these days. Bomb thrown in the Medical Center out
there, a _bomb_ of all things! Shades of Lenin. Couple of people
killed, and one of the doctors nearly beaten to death on the street
before the police arrived to clear the mob away. Dan Fowler's name
popping up here and there, not pleasantly. Whispers and accusations,
_sotto voce_. And 'Moses' Tyndall's network hookup last night--of
course nobody with any sense listens to _him_, but did you hear that
hall go wild?
Rinehart--yes, that's him. Well, he's got a right to look worried. If
Dan can unseat him here and now, he's washed up. According to the
rules of the Government, you know, Fowler can legally petition for
Rinehart's chairmanship without risking it as a platform plank in the
next election, and get a hearing here, and then if the Senate votes
him in, he's got the election made. Dan's smart. They're scared to
throw old Rinehart out, of course--after all, he's let them keep their
thumbs on rejuvination all these years with his Criteria, and if they
supported him they got named, and if they didn't, they didn't get
named. Not quite as crude as that, of course, but that's what it
boiled down to, let me tell you! But now, if they reject Dan's
petition and the people give him the election over their heads,
they're _really_ in a spot. Out on the ice on their rosy red--
How's that? Can't be too long now. I see Tyndall has just come in,
Bible and all. See if he's got any tomatoes in his pockets. Ol' Moses
really gets you going--ever listen to him talk? Well, it's just as
well. Damn, but it's hot in here--
In the rear chamber, Dan mopped his brow, popped a pill under his
tongue, dragged savagely on the long black cigar. "You with me, son?"
Carl nodded.
"You know what it means."
"Of course. There's your buzzer. Better get in there." Carl went back
to Jean and the others around the 80-inch screen, set deep in the
wall. Dan put his cigar down, gently, as though he planned to be back
to smoke it again before it went out, and walked through the tall oak
doors.
* * * * *
The hubbub caught, rose up for a few moments, then dropped away. Dan
took his seat, grinned across at Libby, leaned his head over to drop
an aside into Parker's ear. Rinehart staring at the ceiling as the
charges are read off in a droning voice--
_--Whereas the criteria for selection of candidates for sub-total
prosthesis, first written by the Honorable Walter Rinehart of the
Great State of Alaska, have been found to be inadequate, outdated, and
utterly inappropriate to the use of sub-total prosthesis that is now
possible--_
_--And whereas that same Honorable Walter Rinehart has repeatedly used
the criteria, not in the just, honorable, and humble way in which such
criteria must be regarded, but rather as a tool and weapon for his own
furtherance and for that of his friends and associates--_
Dan waited, patiently. Was Rinehart's face whiter than it had been?
Was the Hall quieter now? Maybe not--but wait for the petition--
_--The Senate of the United States of North America is formally
petitioned that the Honorable Walter Rinehart should be displaced from
his seat as Chairman in the Criterion Committee, and that his seat as
Chairman of that committee should be resumed by the Honorable Daniel
Fowler, author of this petition, who has hereby pledged himself before
God to seek through this Committee in any and every way possible, the
extention of the benefits of sub-total prosthesis techniques to all
the people of this land and not to a chosen few--_
Screams, hoots, cat-calls, applause, all from the gallery. None
below--Senatorial dignity forbade, and the anti-sound glass kept the
noise out of the chamber below. Then Dan Fowler stood up, an older
Dan Fowler than most of them seemed to remember. "You have heard the
charges which have been read. I stand before you now, formally, to
withdraw them--"
What, what? Jaws sagging, eyes wide; teevie camera frozen on the
Senator's face, then jerking wildly around the room to catch the
reaction--
"You have also heard the petition which has been read. I stand before
you now, formally, to withdraw it--"
Slowly, measuring each word, he told them. He knew that words were not
enough, but he told them. "Only 75,000 men and women have undergone
the process, at this date, out of almost two hundred million people on
this continent, yet it has already begun to sap our strength. We were
told that no change was involved, and indeed we saw no change, but it
was there, my friends. The suicides of men like Kenneth Armstrong did
not just _occur_. There are many reasons that might lead a man to take
his life in this world of ours--selfishness, self-pity, hatred of the
world or of himself, bitterness, resentment--but it was none of these
that motivated Kenneth Armstrong. _His death was the act of a
bewildered, defeated mind_--for he saw what I am telling you now and
knew that it was true. He saw Starships built and rebuilt, and never
launched--colonies dying of lethargy, because there was no longer any
drive behind them--brilliant minds losing sight of goals, and drifting
into endless inconsequential digressions--lifetimes wasted in
repetition, in re-doing and re-writing and re-living. He saw it: the
downward spiral which could only lead to death for all of us in the
last days.
"This is why I withdraw the charges and petition of this Hearing. This
is why I reject rejuvenation, and declare that it is a monstrous thing
_which we must not allow to continue_. This is why I now announce that
I personally will nominate the Honorable John Tyndall for President in
the elections next spring, and will promise him my pledged support, my
political organization and experience, and my every personal effort to
see that he is elected."
* * * * *
It seemed that there would be no end to it, when Dan Fowler had
finished. 'Moses' Tyndall had sat staring as the blood drained out of
his sallow face; his jaw gaped, and he half-rose from his chair, then
sank back with a ragged cough, staring at the Senator as if he had
been transformed into a snake. Carl and Terry were beside Dan in a
moment, clearing a way back to the rear chambers, then down the steps
of the building to a cab. Senator Libby intercepted them there, his
face purple with rage, and McKenzie, bristling and indignant. "You've
lost your mind, Dan."
"I have not. I am perfectly sane."
"But _Tyndall_! He'll turn Washington into a grand revival meeting,
he'll--"
"Then we'll cut him down to size. He's _my_ candidate, remember, not
his own. He'll play my game if it pays him well enough. But I want an
Abolitionist administration, and I'm going to get one."
In the cab he stared glumly out the window, his heart racing, his
whole body shaking in reaction now. "You know what it means," he said
to Carl for the tenth time.
"Yes, Dan, I know."
"It means no rejuvenation, for you or for any of us. It means proving
something; to people that they just don't want to believe, and
cramming it down their throats if we have to. It means taking away
their right to keep on living."
"I know all that."
"Carl, if you want out--"
"Yesterday was the time."
"Okay then. We've got work to do."