ns we have had
the utmost need to adopt an attitude of humility. We have been fortunate
in coming to a community of worlds where war and oppression are not
standard rules of procedure. Among our own people we have encountered no
such magnanimity as has been extended repeatedly by other worlds,
climaxed now by the Ryke's magnificent offer.

"To adopt sincere intellectual humility and the attitude of the pupil is
not to function as a parasite, Dr. Hockley."

"Your analogy of teacher and pupil is very faulty in expressing our
relation to the Rykes," said Hockley. "Or perhaps I should say it is too
hellishly accurate. Would you have us remain the eternal pupils? The
closing of the National Laboratories means an irreversible change in our
position. Is it worth gaining a universe of knowledge to give up your
own personal free inquiry?"

"I am sure none of us considers he is giving up his personal free
inquiry," said Silvers almost angrily. "We see unlimited expansion
beyond anything we have imagined in our wildest dreams."

On a few faces there were frowns of uncertainty, but no one spoke up to
support him. Hockley knew that until this vision of paradise wore off
there were none of them on whom he could count.

He smiled broadly and stood up to ease the tension in the room. "Well,
it appears you have made your decision. Of course, Congress can accept
the Ryke plan whether we approve or not, but it is good to go on record
one way or the other. I suppose that on the way out tonight it would be
proper to check in at Personnel and file a services available
notification."

And then he wished he hadn't said that. Their faces grew a little more
set at his unappreciated attempt at humor.

* * * * *

Showalter remained after the others left. He sat across the desk while
Hockley turned back to the window. Only the tip of the gammatron tower
now caught the late afternoon sunlight.

"Maybe I'm getting old," Hockley said. "Maybe they're right and the Lab
isn't worth preserving if it means the difference between getting or not
getting tutelage from the Rykes."

"But you don't feel that's true," said Showalter.

"No."

"You're the one who built the Lab into what it is. It has as much worth
as it ever had, and you have an obligation to keep it from being
destroyed by a group of politicians who could never understand its
necessity."

"I didn't build it," said Hockley. "It grew because I was able