Brain World

Chapter Twelve

Now Ronny was saying, “Where and what did you hear about the Dawnman Worlds?”

Fredric said, “You mentioned that the others who landed with you had been brainwashed. I don’t believe I know that term. What do you mean?”

“Memory wiped,” Ronny told him flatly. “All their memories about the Dawnworlds were erased.”

“What an intrusion!” Mattie protested.

Ronny looked over at her. “Yes,” he said. “But a necessary one. The human race is at stake.”

Fredric said, “But you are trusted with the secret of the existence of the Dawnworlds, and with their location?”

“Yes. The Commissioner of Section G decided that we should have someone knowledgeable about them.”

“And Phil Birdman?”

“Phil Birdman was killed not long ago on an assignment.”

“And the Supreme Commandant of Phrygia?”

“Suicided shortly after our return from the Dawnworlds. I am the only person alive who knows their location. I burned the star chart showing it. The galaxy being as large as it is, it could take a millenium to locate them without my assistance.”

His eyes narrowed. “But, once again, how do you know about these things, the names of Birdman and the Supreme Commandant?”

Max said softly, “You left out one survivor of your adventure, Ronny Bronston. Academician Count Felix Fitzjames. After the destruction of Phrygia he did not commit suicide, as did his late commandant. He eluded your agents and came here to Einstein and requested asylum. It was granted him, in view of the fact that he was an outstanding authority in the field of anthropology.”

Dorn Horsten said coldly, “Where is he now?”

Fredric took over again. “The Academician was an aged man. He is dead.”

Ronny said, “And he revealed to you the location of the Dawnworlds?”

“He couldn’t. He didn’t know. He was an academician, not a navigator. But he told us the story of them and your activities there. We would like to know more. The story is fascinating.”

“That, it is,” Ronny said flatly. “It is also the most restricted story in United Planets. Not even my superiors know the location of those worlds. They don’t want to. It must never get out and each additional person who knows a secret makes it that much more difficult to keep it.”

Barbara, frowning slightly, said, “You of Section G seem to make an awfully big issue of this. Why?”

“Because we’re afraid to death that some crackpot element will find out where they’re located and go there and, as a result, doom the whole human race.” He looked from one of them to the other, slowly, deliberately. “So I am not about to reveal the location of the Dawnworlds, even to citizens of the planet Einstein, no matter what their Intelligence Quotient. Someone, a long time ago, pointed out that high intelligence is no guarantee of high integrity. Some of the most intelligent people who ever lived were also ambitious. The Medicis and Borgias of the Renaissance were admittedly brilliant. So was Napoleon, or he wouldn’t have been the military genius he proved himself to be. No, intelligence is no guarantee of integrity, nor even a guarantee of correct decision. According to our racial legends, an omniscient God created man. A mistake if I ever heard of one.”

They laughed dutifully.

Marvin said, “Academician Fitzjames informed us that the, ah, Brahmins of the Dawnworld you landed upon had, evidently telepathically, determined that your life had been shortened and, wishing to keep you alive so that you could warn others off, still, evidently, through nothing more than a telepathic contact, then extended your life for over two hundred years. In short, they have the elixir of life, as the old alchemists used to call it.”

Ronny said, “Whether or not my life has been extended for over two hundred years, I don’t know. I’ll have to wait it out. However, it is true that my aging fifteen or twenty years overnight did not happen, though, as a result of a drug I took, it should have. But now, I’ll answer no more questions about the Dawnworlds. The information is taboo. Far from warning others off, as the Brahmins wished, it was decided by Ross Metaxa not even to let others know they exist, let alone their location.”

Boy got up from the floor and stretched and said, “You humans sure do a lot of yakking. I think I’ll go get something to eat.” He headed for the dining room and Ronny and Dorn looked after him for a moment, blankly.

Two or three of the others laughed, especially when the dog’s voice came back, ordering a steak for himself at the automated table.

Ronny muttered, “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”

Dorn Horsten pushed his pince nez glasses back on the bridge of his nose and said, “To get back to the workings of the planet Einstein.”

“Yes, of course,” Fredric said.

“We were informed at the Octagon that, when you colonized, the basic requirement was an I.Q. of at least 130. After all these years, what is the average today?”

Fredric frowned before saying slowly, “We no longer use the I.Q. system for measuring intelligence. We couldn’t, even if we wished. In the I.Q. system, what would have happened if a child answered correctly all 100 of the questions in the required time?”

Ronny said, “What methods did you utilize to upgrade your mental and physical attributes?”

Fredric said, “I am not a geneticist. However, briefly, from earliest youth a child is checked out not only for its physical attributes but its—I.Q. you would call it—and its ability quotient.”

“Ability quotient?” Dorn said.

“Ability quotient is the child’s performance in verbal ability, verbal fluency, numerical ability, spatial ability, perceptual ability, memory, accident proneness, digital dexterity, analogizing power, mechanical aptitude, clerical aptitude, emotional maturity, tone discrimination, taste sensitivity, sexual attraction, color blindness, accuracy, persistence, freedom from neurosis, and powers of observation.”

Ronny whistled softly between his teeth.

Fredric went on. “At the age of fifteen if the child does not check out at least five percent higher than its parents in intelligence and ability quotient, it is sterilized by the Medical Department of Genetics. We wish to take no chances of the child’s genes continuing.”

Both Dorn and Ronny blinked a bit at that one, but Dorn said, “You utilize other methods?”

“Yes, truly outstanding examples of our males have their sperm frozen and it is used over a period of time to artificially inseminate outstanding females.”

“Your methods seem somewhat drastic,” Dorn said thoughtfully. “However, it is an internal matter and I rather doubt that it would be grounds to prevent you from becoming a member of United Planets.”

Max said, “I think that something should be pointed out to our visitors. Our, mmm, I.Q.’s aren’t as high as all that. You see, we started with a minimum of 130 and a median of, perhaps, 140 and by carefully breeding up the average five percent each generation, eliminating those who didn’t upgrade, and utilizing artificial insemination from the ultra-high, each generation would develop. However, it takes little mathematics to show that in four generations, a century roughly, the median of 140 would only have increased to about 170 which is not unknown on other worlds of United Planets.”

Ronny said dryly, “But it’s not exactly widespread.”

Barbara said, very earnestly, “You must understand that by utilizing genetic surgery to alter the DNA, as we have done on animals, we could speed up this acceleration. However, we wish to avoid generation gaps. It might be possible, overnight, to up our, uh, l.Q. to a thousand average, compared to the one hundred of Earth. But then, the older generations would not be able to associate with the new. It is one thing communicating with someone who has an l.Q. ten to twenty points higher than yours, but it is another if it is ten times as high.”

Fredric had been looking at the two Section G men unhappily. He said now, “I see that you don’t approve of our methods. I might point out that the need has long been expressed. Plato proposed an eugenic program, saying, ‘In the same way, if we want to prevent the human race from degeneration, we shall take care to encourage union between the better elements of both sexes, and to eliminate that of the worst.’ ”

Darlene put in, “We minimize gene surgery, gene copying, gene insertion and gene deletion. Algeny and genetic engineering we handle with kid gloves. We utilize nature, largely, rather than science and technology to upgrade our people.”

Dorn said, “What surprises me is that we have so little trouble communicating with you. I would never know that we weren’t on Earth or Archimedes or one of the other advanced planets. But surely there is a great intellectual gap between us.”

Marvin said, “We selected not only citizens who spoke Basic and Amer-English but also those who had the widest experience with people from overspace. We six have already had considerable contact, through attending scientific conventions and through the small amount of trade we conduct with other worlds.”

“I see,” Ronny said, self-deprecation in his voice. “You’re especially selected to meet us. Rosemary is stupid, as she put it, and hence better able to communicate with us. You’ve been through the ordeal before, and so are able.”

Fredric was distressed. “You must not think in that manner. See here, Ronny, how would you like to submit to one of our present-day equivalents of an I.Q. test, just to see where you stand as compared to the average Einstein citizen?”

“Hell no,” Ronny said. “It’d probably give me an inferiority complex that’d last the rest of my life.”

“But surely such an organization as your own required a high I.Q. before you were admitted.”

“Possibly, but I still don’t want to compare mine with yours, any more than I’d want to compare my last dog with Boy. It would have given Gimmick the willies even to come in contact with Boy.”

And so it went. Ronny Bronston and Dorn Horsten fired every question they could think of at the six-member committee, pertaining to the workings of Einstein. They pried further into the socioeconomic system. They delved into its governmental system, or its lack of it. They asked about religion and found that there was none. They had gotten into quite a discussion on the difference between accumulated knowledge and intelligence.

It was pointed out by Max that Einstein was as desperately at work accumulating knowledge as it was increasing intelligence. One was meaningless without the other.

They took out time for lunch and Rosemary suggested that the guests from overspace might like to sample dishes which had originated on Einstein and wines that had been developed on this world.

It was delicious beyond belief.

After lunch, they returned to the living room with coffee and a local dessert wine and had at it again. It wasn’t necessary for Ronny and Dorn to consult with each other to realize that both were coming to the same conclusion. Ross Metaxa’s fears were meaningless. There was no reason at all why Einstein should not be admitted into United Planets. Indeed, it was fast becoming increasingly obvious that she was the most advanced world ever settled by humanity. Einstein was exactly the kind of member planet that they needed most. Undoubtedly, she had made thousands of scientific and technological discoveries that could be assimilated by other worlds.

Arrangements were made for Dorn Horsten to meet some of the scientists in his particular field the following day, and arrangements for Ronny to visit the Einstein version of a university. It would seem schools on this world were unlike any elsewhere. They had revolutionized education as much as they had any other field.

During one break, Dorn had drifted over to Rosemary’s bar to refresh his glass.

Barbara, the gorgeous redhead, came over, her own glass in hand and smiled into his eyes. She said. “I was wondering if you would like a bed companion tonight. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a man as large as you before. It rather excites me.”

Dorn Horsten kept himself from gaping at her, and then swallowed. He adjusted his pince-nez glasses on his nose. It was one of the reasons he wore the antiquated things. It gave you a chance to do something for a moment, while your mind raced to accommodate the unexpected.

He said gallantly, “I was just in the process of screwing up my courage to the point of asking you.” He made a slight bow.

“Good,” she smiled. “I’ll spend the night here with you, then. The others have been invited to stay at Fredric’s place. He lives quite near.”

The day sped by under the impetus of fascinating discoveries and, before they knew it, they were at table again.

It was a yawning Ronny Bronston by the time they split up, and all of the committee save Barbara took off for Fredric’s home. Nobody seemed to think twice about Barbara remaining. As Dorn had thought the night before, they had no sexual taboos whatsoever. He suspected that had he asked one or more of the other women to stay as well, they most likely would have taken him up.

Boy followed Ronny to his suite and looked about it while his new master began wearily shedding his clothes.

The dog said, “Not bad, as human tastes go. What bed do you sleep in?”

“This one,” Ronny said, sitting down on it to remove his shoes.

“Then I’ll take this one,” Boy told him and jumped up on it and stretched out.

Ronny looked over at the dog and shook his head in continued amazement. He said, “Boy, how old are you?”

“I’ll be five in a few weeks. That’s Einstein calendar, of course. I don’t know what it’d be Earth-calendar.”

“A human child of five wouldn’t have your vocabulary. Not on Earth, at least.”

“Not on Einstein, either,” Boy said, then let his tongue hang out long enough for three quick pants. “We mature more quickly. A human isn’t even sexually mature until he reaches up to fifteen. Hell, I had my first bitch when I was only one. A cute poodle.”

Ronny shook his head again and returned to his shoes.

There came a knock at the door and, without waiting for his response, Rosemary entered, her smile bright as always. She carried a bottle and two champagne glasses.

“Nightcap,” she announced.

“Wizard,” Ronny said. Inwardly, he was hoping that she wouldn’t be quite so much of a barracuda tonight. He had done nothing but talk all day, but he was tired. Come to think of it, he was still sexually tired from the night before.

She put the two glasses down on the room’s center table and began expertly to draw the cork. She popped it and, just as expertly, poured before the effervescent wine could overflow the bottle.

Boy said, accusingly, “You didn’t bring a bowl for me. I’ve got a taste for bubbly wine.”

She looked over at him, as though seeing him for the first time. She said, apologetically, “Oh, Ronny, I couldn’t possibly… well, I couldn’t do anything with a dog watching us.”

“Who wants to watch?” Boy growled. “What do you think I am, some sort of voyeur?”

She said, “I’m sorry, Boy.”

“All right, all right,” he said, getting up and jumping off the bed. “I’ll go sleep in the living room.” He looked at Ronny and it was absolutely possible to see disgust in his expression. “This is a hell of a way to start our relationship, Boss.” And with that, he trotted out.

“Sorry, Boy,” Ronny said apologetically after him.

After the dog was gone, Rosemary said, “It’s just a thing I have. I can’t bear to have intelligent animals watching me when I make love.” She handed Ronny one of the two glasses and began to undress.

He sipped appreciatively, then finished the sparkling wine in two gulps and rolled over into the bed. The whole group of them had been drinking, off and on, since lunch and he didn’t need any more—especially if he was going to perform with the beauteous Rosemary. Alcohol had a tendency to slow him down in bed.

She said, “I was fascinated by what you said about those Dawnman planets. Are they very far away?”

He said, his mind as weary as his body, “Yes. And in a direction that’s such that I doubt if man, at his current rate of expansion, would ordinarily touch into the area for another millenium.”

“Why would that be?” she said, slipping out of her kilt.

“Different spiral,” he yawned. “You know, Earth is rather far out, you might say on the outskirts of the galaxy, in an area rather sparsely occupied by sun systems, compared to closer in to the center. With billions of sun systems involved, even with the underspace drive, our race could take an almost unbelievable time to expand to the point where we ran into the Dawnworld culture, or other intelligent life, for that matter.” He thought about it. “But it’s only a matter of time, of course. Sooner or later we will—unless we lose our drive to expand.”

She kicked off her Etruscan revival slippers. “So the Dawnworlds are closer in toward the center?”

“That’s right,” he told her, “but I shouldn’t even be talking about it.”

She said, “What’s all this about their being so advanced but that they’re not really intelligent? That doesn’t sound very reasonable.”

“It’s that same discussion we had earlier. About intelligence and accumulated knowledge. If you had an intelligence half, or even a quarter, of the average on Earth, not to speak of Einstein, in a few megayears you’d have one hell of a lot of accumulated knowledge. You wouldn’t have to be smart. In a few million years you would have figured out one hell of a lot of things, assuming, obviously, that you had enough wit to develop a written language as well as a spoken one, so you could pass your accumulated material on to the next generation.”

She climbed into bed next to him but didn’t immediately act as frankly as she had the night before. She simply stretched out, there, and put her hands behind her head. “In what direction, toward the center of the galaxy, are they?” she said idly.

And alarm bells rang in his head.

But it was then that the knockout drops hit Ronny Bronston.