chosen, purely as a precaution? But which one
of your countrymen? Among all your acquaintances, is there even one whom
you would trust not to react emotionally on at least one count, thus
automatically rendering him unfit to play god? Bearing in mind that the
first human being to find his full potential placed at his command will
be a titan with the power to prevent any peer being raised to oppose
him, would you feel safe with the choice of anyone except--yourself?"

"Are we that bad?"

"At birth, no, but from birth onward you are exposed to infection and
you sicken to a greater or lesser degree depending on the concentration
of infection around you. Let me answer you this way. Suppose the
spaceship were found and examined, what would happen? Among other tools
there is a prospecting instrument on board that is a rough approximation
of a disintegration beam--it punches neat holes in solid rock by a
process that leaves an exceedingly heavy dust behind--for a short while.
Then something happens to the molecular bonds of the heavy dust, and the
little holes become very big holes. Its principles would take you some
years to work out, but its manufacture and operation are fairly obvious.
What would be the fate of that very useful tool?"

"I can't deny that its possibilities as a weapon would be seized upon,
but with such a weapon--"

"Ah, yes--no one would dare to go to war. At any rate, not with the
country possessing the weapon."

"It could stop all war."

"If your part of the world threatened the other part of the world and
put a halo around the 'or else'. What would the other part of the world
do when the first news of the spaceship leaked out, as it would do
immediately?"

"O. K.--I guess you know as well as I do."

* * * * *

"I'm not trying to ride you, Phil, but I want you to see that Fear
and a desire for the security you can never know in your present
state dominate almost every important act. As a people, a race, a
species, you are unsane. What am I to do? To die in peace, leaving you
as you are, without hope or help, is against every Challon instinct.
To leave unrealized the human potential with its tremendous promise
is unthinkable. Your race might destroy itself before your secret is
rediscovered millennia from now, and the greatest wonder of creation
be lost forever. Even the spaceship which I have failed to destroy
with its innocent secrets, could destroy you simply b