Subble did not comment. He explored a large fibrous container, noting the pockets and fastenings inside. It was designed to hold the assembled transceiver, and to float on water. He glanced out over the gulf.
'Yes, they can "walk" on water,' Cal said. 'At high speed the water presents a surface as solid as the dust nature trained them for. But the air here is thin, for them.'
'When will I meet them?'
Cal shook his head. 'I know you have no fear of death but a premature encounter would be disastrous, for you and perhaps for Earth.'
'Not for the manta?'
Cal tried to lift an energizer pack into the basket, but his strength was insufficient. Subble took it from him and fastened it in the proper place. Obviously the little man had not intended to take this equipment out to sea by himself.
'We live in a charged environment,' Cal observed. 'So many billions of sentient individuals, such intense war hysteria, cultural unrest, pressure to succeed. Most of the people of this planet are desperate to get away from it all but there is nowhere to go. Only a few qualify for space. And so they grasp at anything in reach, and pull it down in the belief they are climbing-'
Subble remembered the misery of the programmer in charge of the cellar farm, and Aquilon's own distraught emotionalism. He quoted:
The Sensual and the Dark rebel in vain Slaves by their own compulsion. In mad game They burst their manacles and wear the name Of Freedom, graven on a heavier chain!
'Coleridge,' Cal agreed. 'He referred to the French Revolution, of course, two hundred years ago, but he spoke for humanity as well, as the great poets do. "When France in wrath her giant limbs upreared" - how easy it would be to transpose that for today!'
Subble smiled. 'When Man in wrath his nuclear arms upreared, And with that oath which smote air, earth and sea Fired his great jets and swore he would be free-Bear witness how I hoped and feared!'
'Except that some of us no longer hope. Man is an omnivore, figuratively as well as literally. He consumes everything-'
'An omnivore,' Subble murmured remembering Aquilon's remarks.
'You begin to see the problem. Man is the true omnivore, far more savage than the creature we designated by that term on Nacre. I'm afraid it hit 'Quilon pretty hard when she realized-'
'It did. She won't touch meat now.'
'I know exactly how she feels. Nacre was a pretty drastic lesson. But none of us realized the really fundamental difference between man's nature and that of the creatures of Nacre. As it was, we were casting about blindly.'
'So am I,' Subble hinted. 'What is this "fundamental" difference, if it is not the ecological adjustment or the methods of perception?'
'I can't make that clear unless I tell you first about the third kingdom.'
'I don't follow you.' This sounded like a fairy tale, but the man had something concrete in mind.
Cal nodded. 'Probably you overlook it just as we did on Nacre. I certainly had little excuse. All the learning in the world can't make a man grasp the obvious, when that learning contributes to a prescribed mode of thinking. This, more than the sensory differences, makes it difficult to establish full contact with the manta.'
Subble studied him, but found no evidence of equivocation. The man had a concept that was not easy to accept or discuss, particularly for him, and the odds were good that it had direct bearing on what Veg and Aquilon had not felt free to tell him. There was a major section of the puzzle missing. 'What must I do to acquire this information?'
'It is not information per se; it is a way of thinking. I haven't mastered it myself, and may never do so, though I like to think I am gaining ground. But it is a difficult route, especially for someone like yourself. You have too much contemporary power.'
'Too much?'
'That can be a liability. There are realms only the impoverished can achieve.'
Subble smiled again. 'And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'
'I'm afraid that's what I mean. You have chosen one of the most popular misquotes of the language, and are probably not even aware of it.'
'I assure you the quote is exact. King James Version, Matthew XIX: 24.'
'Precisely. You have been indoctrinated with a standard education, and a remarkably comprehensive one. You therefore have not reaped the benefits of genuine scholarship. You are limited by the standard restrictions and errors. I daresay you can quote the entire Bible-'
'I can.'
'Yet you have never thought to question the version or translation. Otherwise you would have suspected that Jesus of Nazareth, in whatever capacity He existed, probably never spoke of a camel attempting anything so ludicrous as climbing through the eye of a needle. I believe the original term was "rope", or "camel-hair", miscopied and never corrected.'
Subble was silent. It was true: he had no means to verify or refute this statement, but it had the ring of authenticity. It made no difference whether the little man was right or wrong; he had the advantage because his knowledge was more pertinent than Subble's own. Cal had pinpointed the weakness of a man who had his entire education grafted on, and Cal was in control.
For the time being. Well, Aquilon had warned him.
The information doesn't matter,' Cal said. 'It is the attitude that counts. You were sure of yourself because you knew you had your quotation straight. You were right, yet wrong. That's why your rich man has so much difficulty - he can't bring himself to part with his wealth, even when it becomes an impediment to the achievement of his basic desires. The poor man has no moral advantage; he simply has less to lose. So he can travel where the rich man can't.'
'You are telling me that I must give up my knowledge if I am to complete my mission?'
'Essentially, yes. At least you must set aside your confidence in it. Your certainty will betray you, here.'
'Can you provide me some more tangible reason for doing so?'
'That sounds like my cue to condemn you as a materialist who will never achieve the kingdom of heaven! But I don't require blind faith in anything, including faith itself. I can give you reason: you must learn to communicate with the manta, and the manta is alien. Much more alien than its actions or appearance indicate. Perhaps in time normal man will hold meaningful dialogue with normal manta - but not for many years, I suspect. You need to do it now - and that means you must go to the manta. You have to meet it on its own territory, in its own framework. No human conventions will help you; they'll only interfere. You may never get a second chance, if you blunder early.'
Again Subble remembered Aquilon's episode, and knew that what Cal said was true. The manta's appearance was strange and its actions stranger - and the reactions of the three who had dealt with it on its home world were stranger yet. If he were to learn the whole truth, he would have to finish with the mysterious manta - and it obviously was alien. He could not trust the second-handed impressions of others.
But if he set aside his formidable training, he would be vulnerable - as perhaps the starfaring trio had been. Assuming that he could set it aside. 'Do you realize what land of conditioning I have undergone?' Subble inquired. 'No casuistry can shake my logic; no torture can break me; no brainwashing can overcome my loyalty to my mission without first killing me. How do you propose that I accomplish what my entire existence was conceived and shaped to prevent?'
'I'm not sure, but I believe you can approach the third kingdom - and with that and my equipment you have a chance. The trick is to lead you there without destroying your mind. Trust me and let me guide you as far as I can and - we'll see.'
'Why should I trust you?'
It was Cal's turn to smile. 'Because I am completely sincere. You can read my emotion easily, and I know it and you know I know. You must believe me - or renounce faith in your own abilities, which is the same thing. So you have no choice.'
Mousetrapped again, this tune by paradox. His abilities did inform him that he had to questio
n them. 'This statement is false,' he said, musing at it. Taken alone, those four words negated themselves, and forced a new framework which excluded them. An intellectual toy - but it had come to life. 'All right. Lay on, Macduff. Lead the way to the third kingdom. I follow.'
'And damn'd be he that first cries "Hold, enough!"' Cal said. He went inside and returned with an ornate copper vessel resembling an antique teakettle, but slung lower. He set it on the pavement and touched a lighter to its spout. After several attempts he got it going with a tiny greenish flame perched just beyond the projecting tip.
'A lamp,' Subble observed. 'Aladdin's lamp?'
'Something like it. It generally takes a little while for Myco to appear, however. We'll talk; you tell me when you see him.'
'Myco - a combining form applying to fungus. An unflattering designation.'
'Not necessarily.' Cal indicated a spot beside the lamp and they took their places crosslegged on the tile.
Subtle perfume wafted from the flame: cedar and more obscure aromas blended in a harmony new to him. He ticked the ingredients off in his mind, classifying each automatically, but there was a residue that escaped him. An unusual incense, certainly, but harmless. Evidently Cal was trying to create a mood for whatever he was leading up to.
'You have met Veg and 'Quilon already,' Cal said, 'and you know something of the situation we found ourselves in on Nacre. You know about the omnivore?'
'Yes.'
'I suppose it seems a striking coincidence that our particular trio happened to possess the very qualities necessary for survival there.'
'Yes. My boss views such coincidences with distrust. There is generally more to them than what is visible on the surface - or in the official reports.' Subble stared at the flame, waiting for the trap to spring. He detected no aliens nearby, but Cal was expecting something momentarily.
'Actually, there was no coincidence at all,' Cal said. 'Our unusual qualities were at best incidental to the problem, and contributed to some confusion. We just happened to be the group that became isolated on Nacre at the time contact was scheduled to be made. Anyone could have done it.'
That was not precisely true. Cal had hold of information which frightened him thoroughly, and his bodily processes reflected it on every level. Veg and Aquilon had suspected, but Cal knew - whatever it was.
'Chance threw us together, but it meant nothing,' Cal said. 'I wish it would throw us together again.'
'Triangle and all?'
'Triangle and all. 'Quilon has this thing about choosing, when really it isn't necessary. Love is not exclusive.'
'She said she felt "unclean".'
Cal sighed. 'The sensual and the dark rebel in vain,' he said. His form was hazy through the gathering smoke of the lamp. 'Slaves by their own compulsion. Earth has become a population of neurotics, turning inward what they can no longer dissipate outward. Acquaint yourself with virtually any person living today and you will discover it. Suppressed madness. That much certainly is not coincidence. No unique qualities remain - only unique ways to express the horror of continued existence. Some call it creativity, others psychoneurosis - but it remains the madness of a people who have lost their last rational frontier.'
'Veg-'
'Convinced himself that death was the evil he had to fight. Fortunately, he was satisfied to restrict it to the refusal to kill unnecessarily, or to consume the flesh of any creature with a tangible instinct of self-preservation. He was never deeply touched, and remains one of the best adjusted members of our society. He's happy - while his forest lasts.'
Subble had his doubts about that, but was trying to follow Cal, not debate with him. 'Aquilon-'
'Was hit by it in childhood. She was a pretty girl, envied for her appearance. Some chance occurrence suggested to her that she should punish herself by sacrificing her smile. That way the others would not resent her. She took the injunction too literally, and the retribution was far more savage than the offense. Oh, yes, she was beaten - but that was the ignorance of her family, who took the symptom for wilful meanness, though she was actually a rather wonderful person underneath.'
'Yes,' Subble said, remembering. 'But she smiles now.'
'And she's worse off than before. She's caught in a more devious complex. When she believed that the destruction of her smile exonerated her, she was free of other phobias and compulsions. Now she searches for them. She's trying to follow Veg's path, as though death were the ultimate evil and of course it isn't. Life is our world's problem. Too much human life on Earth, crowding in so tightly that territory and freedom are largely concepts of the past. Death is the greatest privilege granted to man; death is responsible for his very evolution. Death is not our enemy - it is our salvation.'
'That's an unusual view in itself.' The perfumed smoke was exhilarating.
'It is the paleontologist's view. Anyone who studies the history of life on Earth must come to respect death as a vital force. Without death there would be no natural selection; without selection, mammal and man would never have arisen. The weak, the deviant, the outmoded - these must all make room for progress. Species radiation and selection: constant variations, some good, most bad, but on the whole the good ones survive and propagate. When you interfere with the selective process, you destroy man.'
'And we have interfered,' Subble said, seeing the reasoning but not the point of it. Cal was still working up to it. 'We have preserved every human life, strong and weak, and nature cannot act.'
'Oh, nature can act - but not in what we consider to be normal fashion,' Cal corrected him. 'I think our genie is on his way. Do you see him?'
Subble peered at the flame. He had been about to inquire about the nature of Cal's own malady, but had missed his chance. Or perhaps he had been outmaneuvered again. 'Myco of the third kingdom? I'm afraid not.'
'There above the lamp - like a little whirlwind, growing. Gray, at first, becoming lighter as it expands. Stop trying to be reasonable and look.'
'If you insist.' Subble concentrated - and saw it. The green flame flickered, changing color, gold, purple and bright red, and from the spout emerged a fine column of smoke, gray and whirling swiftly. As he watched it increased, a dust-devil, miniature tornado, a burgeoning dervish, suddenly exploding into a giant dusky man garbed in streamers of thick smoke. 'I see it,' he said.
The genie placed clublike hands on hips and stared at him.
'Good,' Cal said. 'Myco will guide us to the third kingdom.'
Subble jumped up, realizing that he'd been had again. 'Psychedelic drug! Lysergic acid diethylamide-'
The genie laughed, and the sound echoed. The back of his head resembled a colored toadstool and his teeth were tusks.
'LSD? No,' Cal said. 'This is a hallucinatory agent, though both are derived originally from mushrooms. Their properties differ in ways that wouldn't be important to you.'
'This is the basis of your new philosophy?' Subble inquired, disappointed. He reached to snuff out the lamp.
'No. It is merely a vehicle, a channel - that may or may not lead to the contact we seek. Give it a fair trial before you turn away.'
"There is nothing in my mind not already available to me,' Subble said, but he let the flame be. 'No mysteries can be unveiled where none exist. But the distortion induced by the drug can prejudice my effectiveness.'
'Your mind is still closed. Look at yourself: are you elated? Depressed? Do you feel as though you are floating? Have your horizons become limitless? Are you nearer to God? Sexually precocious? Just what effect has the drug had upon your system? How has it incapacitated you?'
Subble ran through a quick series of physical and intellectual exercises. 'It has affected my system very slightly,' he admitted. 'Not enough to interfere with my performance significantly.'
'In what way has it changed you, then?'
Subble looked at the standing genie, who stared contemptuously back at him. 'It has provoked a sustained hallucination.'
The genie bellowed. 'O fool of a morta
l - and I breathed upon thee one tiny breath, thou would fly into the sea and drown most foully, nor could thou do aught contrary!'
'Don't provoke Myco,' Cal warned. 'In the physical world, you may be supreme - but this is not your world. It does not follow your rules.'
'Yeah,' Myco said with satisfaction.
'Whose rules does it follow?' Subble inquired, interested.
'Mine,' the little man said. 'This drug produces hallucinations without inhibiting the conscious mind or affecting the thinking processes, except to the extent the hallucinations themselves affect them. You are in complete control of your mind and body - but I control the habitat.'
Of Man and Manta Omnibus Page 10