The 7th Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK®: Manly Banister

by Banister, Manly

  His two listeners nodded. Kor was puzzled. He had been taught that the Men were supreme Good, that whatever a Man did, it was right. Was Tor Shan about to explode this concept as he had years ago destroyed for Kor the concept that the People owed allegiance to the conquering Trisz?

  Tor Shan continued, sketching a broad picture of the Universe as not a place or an expanse, but an ideation only.

  “The idea which is our Universe,” Tor Shan told them, “is one that is apprehended by mind. It is an intellectual concept, if you like the term better. Our own awareness apprehends that the Universe exists. If it requires awareness to apprehend this existence, then awareness was required to establish it. That is as far as human reasoning will go. Beyond this point, our method of third-order rationalization takes us to the ultimate answer to the question of the constitution of the Universe. This answer is not on the verbal level. It is apprehended only in the mind, and fully, only in the minds of the Men.

  “Even in very ancient times, the mind of man apprehended this ultimate answer, and from their apprehension grew the religions of their times. To say, however, that the present philosophy and civilization of the Men stems from the ancient religions is not strictly true. Rather, it is true that the ancient religions were offshoots of the straight and narrow path leading to Manhood. Man groped in the night of his own ignorance, and wove the stuff of his dreams into his apprehension of the Universe and man’s place in it.

  “Once, uncounted millennia ago, before the Brotherhood of Men ever rose out of the pit of darkness into which the pre-Men plunged the world, there lived a Man who said, ‘The world shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’ We have his words today. And he once said to a questioner, ‘Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, and that is God.’”

  In those times, Tor Shan went on to explain, the concept of Good consisted of that which was in the People’s favor; and what was Evil, was, that which worked to their detriment.

  “What was God to those ancient men? God was the epitome of Good. Everything which was right and proper for men came from God. From this idea flowed the casuistic principles with which men bound themselves, and which they called religion. Having discovered the first step toward Ultimate Good, mankind was satisfied with itself, and stopped there.

  “In this ideation which we call the Universe, it makes no difference whether man or the Trisz is the recipient of the Universal Good. The Good is still there, for whomsoever will take it. The earliest fallacy, therefore, was the concept that God gives. Actually, man takes. Who would receive the goodness of God must take it. It is not delivered without request.

  “Moral principles respecting one side or another, one individual or another, have no place in determining who shall benefit from the Good of the Universe—the third-order principle behind the material ideation. There is only one Good, and that is for both men and the Trisz to recognize. We, the Men, know that the Trisz do not comprehend this principle; it is completely alien to their understanding. That they have profited from it makes no difference. It is man’s own fault that he did not profit from it himself, in place of the Trisz. Because of the alien aspect of the principle to Trisz understanding, we can have hope that ultimately we shall destroy him, because we understand the principle and know how to use it—as the people of the Universe could have used it thousands of years ago with the first coming of the enemy—if they had known about it.”

  Tor Shan’s listeners hung on his words. The Master was touching deeply upon subjects that had been lightly glossed over in Kor’s training. The concepts were utterly new and bizarre almost beyond comprehension to Soma, whose religious schooling had been conducted along the lines of the Lord Sun ritual and dogma.

  “Good is for him who avails himself of it,” Tor Shan pointed out. “It is an enormous power that is available to all. I have loosely called it ‘Good’, which is a word without meaning. There is no word for the actual concept. It is a third-order rationalization, which can not be abstracted to the verbal level.

  “The effect of the principle, however, is this, that the balance must maintain itself in the Universe. No force can gain headway in a given direction without an opposing force falling back. When the opposing force returns, then the other must give way. That is the law. There is no such thing as an irresistible force or an immovable object.

  “What has this to do with our present state of affairs in the Universe? The people of the Universe—who are composed not only of mankind, but of the billions of species inhabiting the countless worlds in space—are all of a kind, spiritually speaking. The history of one world repeats itself almost verbatim in the history of another. Humanity is humanity, regardless of the physical shape of its individuals, or its galactographic location. Desires, needs, aspirations, are much the same everywhere throughout the Universe. The elevation of Self is the driving force behind every mote of humanity swarming in inconceivable numbers everywhere in our space, and time. The ideas and actions of the people being about the same all over led to a state that was intolerable. Somewhere among this seething mass, some group had to burst upward and upset the puddle of stagnation into which the universe of spiritual men had resolved itself.

  “On worlds everywhere, civilization rose, attained a high state of technological advancement, then fell in ruins. The spiritual force which was man, in the idea of inhabitants of the Universe, if it could not advance, neither could it remain in one place. It had to fall back before an opposing force. The Trisz, wherever they came from, supplied that force. In so short a time that it was almost instantaneous, man was pushed back on all fronts. The Trisz had the ascendancy…and they have maintained it to this day. The Trisz, in complete command of the Universe, are slowly destroying it by a subtle process of squeezing out all other forms of life.

  “It is doubtful,” the Master pointed out, “if the Trisz themselves realize this fact, though they may understand it without realizing its conclusion. If the balance of the Universe is not restored by a return movement of Mankind, the People will finally disappear. There will be only one force left the Trisz—and they and the Universe will perish!”

  “I do not understand,” Soma put in. “The Universe is a matter of atoms, molecules, planets, suns, galaxies! What has the spiritual struggle between the Trisz and the Men to do with all this? The Universe cannot be changed!”

  Tor Shan smiled. “The Universe changes every second, my dear. Every passing moment charts its future more completely, more surely. It is doctrine with the Men that the future is established, but it is also doctrine that the future can be changed. What is the future, after all? Is it not the sum of past events, manifested in the transpiration of phenomena, each having its roots in the phenomena of the past? What you will do tomorrow, depends upon what you do today…as today’s deed depends upon yesterday’s action and so on back to the beginning of time.”

  “If this is so,” she put in, “the future is set by the actions of the past. How can it be changed without changing the past?”

  “You speak of actions and of the past as if they were concrete objects, fixed forevermore,” Tor Shan chided her gently. “This is not true. Remember what I said about the Universe and all it contains being not an expanse, not a space, not material, even, but an ideation? The Universe is a concept of a Mind vaster than anything you may conceive. It is a Mind so vast, indeed, that it is mind beyond mind. The vastness of this Mind can not be reasoned to or consciously understood. It can only be apprehended in the centers of third-order rationalization of the human mind.

  “Today’s events pass quickly into the past and become a part of it, subtly altering the future probability from the shape it obtained yesterday. Each day that passes alters the future more and more. It is conscious, intelligent effort directing today’s events that produces the change desired in tomorrow’s happenings. Let us consider that potent tool possessed by the Trisz: technology. See wh
at they have done with it. Lacking hands to control the implements of their science, they have obtained hands to work for them. Their technology—and behind it, their mental acumen or ability for technology—provided them with the tools and expedients of conquest and victory.

  “On the other hand, the Men now have a technology as far-reaching as that of the Trisz, even diverging theirs in some aspects. It is being used in this and similar caverns all over the livable Universe…wherever the problem of destroying the Trisz confronts the race of Men. But beyond their technology, the Men have something else which the Trisz have not and can never hope to have. They have faith, hope, and aspiration—and the ultimate knowledge that there is only one Good, and that is God!”

  Tor Shan settled back with a deep sigh.

  “Well, that is the general picture. You will both receive further indoctrination and training in specialized lines of conduct.” He turned to Soma. “For you, my dear, a place has been made in the integrating section of our Search Division. That is the home-office force, so to speak, of the Searchers who are continuously combing space for habitable worlds, and the ultimate home of the Trisz, wherever it may be.”

  He directed his attention to Kor. “We have no place into which you will easily fit, Kor. But I have a word for you alone.” He nodded to Soma. “You may go now. The young lady in the outer office will take care of you.”

  When Soma had gone, Tor Shan turned again to Kor.

  “You may have wondered why we offered you no help once you had left the Institute. It would have been a case of the blind leading the blind. You had to be left to your own resources in order to further those developments we were seeking. It is of greater advantage to one to learn to explore a region as he perceives it through his own apprehension. You see what I mean: your whole training as a Man was founded on the principle of self-learning with guided direction. At a given point, the direction had to be removed in order for you to supply your own.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Kor agreed. “You mean I had to develop faith in myself.”

  “And several other qualities,” Tor Shan returned ambiguously. “You know that the impingement of the element of self upon scientific investigation has not been decreased more than a trifle by the training and regimen of the Men. Keep that thought in mind. What we want and what is, are two totally different objectives. The subjective mixing of them has always caused difficulty through crippling the scientist’s ability to observe and react properly to his observations.

  “Beware the philosopher who tells you, ‘Think!’ and invariably adds, parenthetically and under his breath, ‘Like me!’ It is from this fundamental error of procedure that the Men have tried to free their reason. I think like Tor Shan; you think like Kor. We do not have to think alike in order to arrive at the same objective conclusion. In mathematics, it is the method that counts. As Men, we are concerned with conclusions, and the method can go hang! You cannot think as I do, any more than you can walk as I do. It is a point we try to make in the teaching of dissimilar reasoning. It is the way to acquire individuality, though often at the cost of some other factors which are important. That is why every Man is graduated into the world. Generally, only those are brought back into the Organization who succeed in regaining those factors dropped earlier. To tell you the nature of these values would be to emphasize them, which would not be to your benefit. Experience can be your only teacher, and the final examination must take place in your own mind, under the supervision of your own sensibilities. When you have made proper recovery of the values I refer to, you will know it—and I will know it. Recovery is self-evident, allowing of no further question.

  “You will then be in readiness for further service to the Organization…perhaps among the Searchers, as your father was, or in some other equally important phase of our activities…

  “Meanwhile, you will be in good hands. We will have an opportunity to look further into the unique qualities of your divisible mind through various laboratory experiments. You will not see me often, as I must spend much of my time at the Institute. And now…” He stood up, offered Kor his hand. “Goodbye, my boy, and good luck to you!”

  Disappointed, Kor allowed himself to be ushered out.

  CHAPTER XIV

  The study of the unprecedented phenomenon of Kor’s divisible mind progressed slowly. A laborious molecule-count of the brain structure yielded no clue. Nor could Kor explain the divisibility which he made use of at will.

  “Apparently,” he suggested, “the divisible function of the mind bears the same relationship to ordinary superconscious functioning that the latter bears to the normal use of mind among untrained human beings. Since many minds can be trained to the use of the superconscious third-order function, it seems likely that a regimen of training might also produce the ability to use the divisible function.”

  Dr. Kras shook his head, pointed to the wavering chart of Kor’s electro-psychograph.

  “Our modern methods,” he said, “are refined to the highest degree. Our instruments can detect the barest most latent superconscious potentiality lying dormant in an untrained mind. Not all minds, you know, can be trained to full use of the superconsciousness. That ability seems to be—I say ‘seems to be’ because the statement once was taken for fact—that ability seems to be evidence of a mutational quality in the individual. Some time in the far past, a human being was born with the latent ability to use his superconscious mind. Without training that ability remained latent.

  “Perhaps it occasionally flashed out as a symptom of ‘genius’, or the individual found himself capable of some queer power or other, which probably frightened him a great deal. From that individual a long line of successors has come, each with the latent ability to use his superconscious, but without the conscious power to enforce use of that ability. What you have may be a further mutation of the mutation. It is too soon to tell. If so, there may be others with the same ability. On the other hand, you may be the only one.”

  Slowly, Kor grew to realize that he was unique. It swelled the pride he held in himself, and made him at least moderately content with his lot as a temporary guinea-pig of the Scarlet Saint psycho-scientists. Kor passed months in their company, in the performance of laboratory experiments.

  During that time, Kor saw a lot of Soma, too. After her work period was done, and Kor’s day at the laboratory was ended, they enjoyed the pleasures of the cavern-city together. Kor had a good opportunity, too, to learn more about Sub-den as a physical phenomenon, never paralleled in nature. The cavern was located a mile below the surface, about a hundred miles from Den-ver and the Institute nearby that city.

  Sub-den was self-subsisting. The city generated its own power, manufactured its own synthetics to take care of the needs of its inhabitants.

  No living thing could pass through the walls of solid rock that closed it in. No kind of energy known to the Men or the Trisz could affront the gigantic force-screens that held back the rock to form this cavern. A city of power, Sub-den was a stronghold of the physical strength of the Men, a power rivaling that of the Trisz, but a power that could not be used against the enemy.

  In addition to his laboratory sessions, Kor attended scores of indoctrination lectures with groups of interested students.

  “All the strength we can muster,” lectured a gray-haired Man, “means nothing against the impervious armor of the Trisz. What is that armor? It is nothing we can see, nothing we can destroy. We could destroy the galaxy planet by planet and sun by sun. But what good would that do us, when we cannot destroy the Trisz? The subtle physical nature of the Trisz is beyond our power to harm. Some day, when our exploring squads of Searchers shall have located the ultimate home of this monster out of space…”

  Kor grew more and more discouraged. Such talk sounded like rank defeatism to him. He began to grow irked by his enforced sessions at the psychlab, sessions productive of nothing b
ut puzzled frowns and much head-scratching. He wanted to be out and away, to attack the problem with action instead of dry lectures and random probing.

  He sat with Soma at a table in the Pavilion of Dance. Cool, scented air wafted past them as the dancers circled in the blaze of a spotlight. Overhead, a simulated night sky blazed with stars in exact reproduction of the galaxy. A quartering moon progressed slowly across the artificial sky in time with the real moon that would have been visible outside.

  “I don’t know!” Kor said suddenly, holding his head in a paroxysm of despair. He slumped on his bent arms. “Soma! This is prison! How much longer will it go on? After all these months, the psychs have found out nothing except what I have been able to tell or show them. So what if my mind is a superior development of the normal mind? I can take only so much of this poking and prodding.”

  Soma touched his hand gently. Kor looked up into her face. She was beautiful. Her soft eyes pleaded with his. Her lips were tender and full. They trembled now in compassion for his feelings.

  She said, “Please, Kor! You must develop peace of mind! After all, we both have jobs here. What we are doing is just as important to the Men as the things others are accomplishing elsewhere.”

  A fitting mate for a Man, Kor thought, looking at her. But her words made him bitter.

  “A year ago we talked with Tor Shan!” he exclaimed. “I haven’t seen him since that time. Twice I have tried and both times he was not available. They admit they’ve got something special in me. Why don’t they use it?”

  “They will, Kor. They will. Just wait.”

  “Wait! Soma, I have been extrapolating. I’m lousy at it, I know. I can’t call up a single clear picture like most of the others can. But I get a feeling from it, something like ecstasy! Something wonderful is going to happen, but I don’t know when! It’s not knowing that is getting to be unbearable.”