er will understand," Sawtelle
replied instantly. "Reasonable, or not, that's exactly what will
happen. And, reasonable or not, it'll be suicide, not murder. There
isn't a thing that either Hilton or I can do about it."

Hilton broke the ensuing silence. "You can say with equal truth that
every human being has the _right_ to run a four-minute mile or to
compose a great symphony. It isn't a matter of right at all, but of
ability. In this case the mental qualities are even more necessary than
the physical. You as a Board did a very fine job of selecting the BuSci
personnel for Project Theta Orionis. Almost eighty per cent of them
proved able to withstand the Ardan conversion. On the other hand, only a
very small percentage of the Navy personnel did so."

"Your report said that the remaining personnel of the Project were not
informed as to the death aspect of the transformation," Admiral Gordon
said. "Why not?"

"That should be self-explanatory," Hilton said, flatly. "They are still
human and still Terrans. We did not and will not encroach upon either
the duties or the privileges of Terra's Advisory Board. What you tell
all Terrans, and how much, and how, must be decided by yourselves. This
also applies, of course, to the other 'Top Secret' paragraphs of the
report, none of which are known to any Terran outside the Board."

"But you haven't said anything about the method of selection," another
Advisor complained. "Why, that will take all the psychologists of the
world, working full time; continuously."

"We said we would do the selecting. We meant just that," Hilton said,
coldly. "No one except the very few selectees will know anything about
it. Even if it were an unmixed blessing--which it very definitely is
_not_--do you want all humanity thrown into such an uproar as that would
cause? Or the quite possible racial inferiority complex it might set up?
To say nothing of the question of how much of Terra's best blood do you
want to drain off, irreversibly and permanently? No. What we suggest is
that you paint the picture so black, using Sawtelle and me and what all
humanity has just seen as horrible examples, that nobody would take it
as a gift. Make them shun it like the plague. Hell, I don't have to tell
you what your propaganda machines can do."

* * * * *

The Chairman of the Board again mounted his invisible rostrum. "Do you
mean to intimate that we are to falsify the record?" he de