The Mote in God's Eye

There was considerable laughter in the wardroom. Renner’s image grinned and said, “I think I know the gentleman. Go on.”

“There is the Crazy Eddie Drive. It makes ships vanish.”

“Great.”

“Theoretically, it should be an instantaneous drive, a key to throw the universe wide open. In practice it makes ships vanish forever. The drive has been discovered and built and tested many times, and always it makes ships vanish forever with everyone aboard, but only if you use it right, mind. The ship must be in just the right place, a place difficult to locate exactly, with the machinery doing just what the theoreticians postulate it must, or nothing will happen at all.”

Both Renners were laughing now. “I see. And we appeared in this point, the Crazy Eddie point. From which you deduce that we have solved the secret of the Crazy Eddie Drive.”

“You got it.”

“And what does that make us?”

The alien parted its lips in a smile disturbingly shark-like, disturbingly human… Renner gave them a good look at that smile before he turned it off.

There was a long silence, then Sinclair spoke. “Well, that’s plain enough, is it not? They ken the Alderson Drive but not the Langston Field.”

“Why do you say that, Commander Sinclair?” Horvath asked. Everyone tried to explain it to him at once, but the Chief Engineer’s burr easily carried through the babble.

“Yon beasties’ ships vanish, but only at the correct place, aye? So they ken the Drive. But they never see the ships back home, because they coom into normal space in yon red star. ‘Tis plain as a pikestaff.”

“Oh.” Horvath nodded sadly. “With nothing to protect them— After all, it is the inside of a star, isn’t it?”

Sally shuddered. “And your Motie said they’d tried it often.” She shuddered again. Then: “But, Mr. Renner—none of the other Moties ever talk about astrogation or anything like that. Mine

told me about ‘Crazy Eddie’ as if he were around only in primitive times—a lost legend.”

“And mine spoke of Crazy Eddie as an engineer always using tomorrow’s capital to fix today’s problems,” Sinclair blurted.

“Anyone else?” Rod prompted.

“Well—” Chaplain David Hardy looked embarrassed. His plump face was almost beet-red. “My Motie says Crazy Eddie founds religions. Weird, very logical, and singularly inappropriate religions.”

“Enough,” Rod protested. “I seem to be the only one whose Motie has never mentioned Crazy Eddie.” He looked thoughtful. “We can all agree that the Moties do have the Drive, but not the Field?”

They all nodded. Horvath scratched his ear for a moment, then said, “Now that I remember the history of Langston’s discovery, it’s no surprise that the Moties don’t have the Field. I’m amazed they have the Drive itself, although its principles can be deduced from astrophysical research. The Field, though, was a purely accidental invention.”

“Given that they know it exists, then what?” Rod asked.

“Then— I don’t know,” Horvath said.

There was complete silence in the room. An ominous silence. Finally the bubble burst. Sally was laughing.

“You all look so deadly serious,” she protested. “Suppose they have both Drive and Field? There’s only the one planet full of Moties. They aren’t hostile, but even if they were, do you really think they would be a threat to the Empire? Captain, what could Lenin do to the Mote planet right now, all by itself, if Admiral Kutuzov gave the order?”

The tension broke. Everyone smiled. She was right, of course. The Moties didn’t even have warships. They didn’t have the Field, and if they invented it, how would they learn space-war tactics? Poor peaceful Moties, what challenge could they be to the Empire of Man?

Everyone except Cargill. He wasn’t smiling at all as he said, quite seriously, “I just don’t know, my lady. And I really wish I did.”

Horace Bury was not invited to the conference, although he knew of it. Now, while it was still going on, a Marine guard came to his cabin and politely, but very firmly, ushered him out of it. The guard would not say where he was taking Bury, and after a while it was obvious he did not know.

“The Gunner, he says to stay with you and be ready to take you to where the rest of them is, Mr. Bury.”

Bury slyly examined the man. What would this one do for a hundred thousand crowns? But then, it wasn’t necessary. Not at the moment. Surely Blaine wasn’t going to have him shot. For a moment Bury was frightened. Could they have made Stone talk, back on New Chicago?

By Allah, no one was safe. Absurd. Even if Stone had told everything, there were and could be no messages to MacArthur from the Empire. They were as effectively sealed off as the Moties.

“You are to stay with me. Does your officer say where I am to go?”

“Not right now, Mr. Bury.”

“Then take me to Dr. Buckman’s laboratory. Why not? We will both be more comfortable.”

The private thought about, it. “OK, come on.”