Heinlein, Robert A Gulf

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"Oh."
They settled down again in die above-surface study. "I give you one more chance to back out, Joe. It
doesn't matter that you know all about the films, since they are gone and you can't prove anything- but
beyond that-you realize that if you come in with us, are told what is going on, you will be killed deader
than a duck at the first suspicious move?"
Gilead did; he knew in fact that he was already beyond the point of no return. With the destruction of
the films went his last chance of rehabilitating his former main persona. This gave him no worry; the
matter was done. He had become aware that from the time he had admitted that he understood the first
message this man had offered him concealed in a double deck of cards he had no longer been a free
actor, his moves had been constrained by moves made by Baldwin. Yet there was no help for it; his
future lay here or nowhere.
"I know it; go ahead."
"I know what your mental reservations are, Joe; you are simply accepting risk; not promising loyalty."
"Yes-but why are you considering taking a chance on me?"
Baldwin was more serious in manner than he usually allowed himself to be. '*You're an able man,
Joe. You have the savvy and the moral courage to do what is reasonable in an odd situation rather than
what is conventional."
'That's why you want me?"
"Partly that. Partly because I like the way you catch on to a new card game." He grinned. "And even
partly because Gail likes the way you behave with a colt."
"Gail? What's she got to do with it?"
"She reported on you to me about five minutes ago, during the raid."
"Hmm-go ahead."
"You've been warned." For a moment Baldwin looked almost sheepish. "I want you to take what I
say next at its face value, Joe-don't laugh."
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"Okay."
"You asked what I was. I'm sort of the executive secretary of this branch of an organization of
supermen."
"I thought so."
"Eh? How long have you known?"
"Things added up. The card game, your reaction time. I knew it when you destroyed the films.'*
"Joe, what is a superman?"
Gilead did not answer.
"Very well, let's chuck the term," Baldwin went on. "It's been overused and misused and beat up until
it has mostly comic connotations. I used it for shock value and I didn't shock you. The term 'supermen'
has come to have a fairy tale meaning, conjuring up pictures of x-ray eyes, odd sense or senses, double
hearts, uncuttable skin, steel muscles-an adolescent's dream of the dragon-killing hero. Tripe, of course.
Joe, what is a man? What is man that makes him more than an animal? Settle that and we'll take a crack
at defining a superman-or New Man, homo novis, who must displace homo sapiens-is displacing
him-because he is better able to survive than is homo sap. I'm not trying to define myself, I'll leave it up to
my associates and the inexorable processes of time as to whether or not I am a superman, a member of
the new species of man-same test to apply to you."
"Me?"
"You. You show disturbing symptoms of being homo novis, Joe, in a sloppy, ignorant, untrained
fashion. Not likely, but you just might be one of the breed. Now-what is man? What is the one thing he
can do better than animals which is so strong a survival factor that it outweighs all the things that animals
of one sort or another can do much better than he can?"
"He can think,"
"I fed you that answer; no prize for it. Okay, you pass yourself off a man; let's see you do something,
What is the one possible conceivable factor-or factors, if you prefer-which the hypothetical superman
could have, by mutation or magic or any means, and which could be added to this advantage which man
already has and which has enabled him to dominate this planet against the unceasing opposition of a
million other species of fauna? Some factor that would make the domination of man by his successor, as
inevitable as your domination over a hound dog? Think, Joe. What is the necessary direction of evolution
to the next dominant species?"
Giiead engaged in contemplation for what was for him a long time. There were so many lovely
attributes that a man might have: to be able to see both like a telescope and microscope, to see the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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