The City And The Stars - Arthur C. Clarke [107]
‘Do you mean,’ he asked, ‘that Vanamonde has only just been born?’
‘By his standards, yes. His actual age is very great, though apparently less than Man’s. The extraordinary thing is that he insists that we created him, and there’s no doubt that his origin is bound up with all the great mysteries of the past.’
‘What’s happening to Vanamonde now?’ asked Hilvar in a slightly possessive voice.
‘The historians of Grevarn are questioning him. They are trying to map out the main outlines of the past, but the work will take years. Vanamonde can describe the past in perfect detail, but he doesn’t understand what he sees; it’s very difficult to work with him.’
Alvin wondered how Seranis knew all this; then he realised that probably every waking mind in Lys was watching the progress of the great research. He felt a sense of pride in the knowledge that he had now made as great a mark on Lys as on Diaspar, yet with that pride was mingled frustration. Here was something which he could never fully share nor understand: the direct contact even between human minds was as great a mystery to him as music must be to a deaf man, or colour to a blind one. Yet the people of Lys were now exchanging thoughts with this unimaginably alien being, whom he had led to Earth but whom he could never detect with any sense that he possessed.
There was no place for him here; when the inquiry was finished, he would be told the answers. He had opened the gates of infinity, and now felt awe—even fear—for all that he had done. For his own peace of mind, he must return to the tiny, familar world of Diaspar, seeking its shelter while he came to grips with his dreams and his ambition. There was irony here; the one who had spurned the city to venture out among the stars was coming home as a frightened child runs back to its mother.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DIASPAR WAS NONE too pleased to see Alvin again. The city was still in a ferment, like a giant beehive that had been violently stirred with a stick. It was still reluctant to face reality, but those who refused to admit the existence of Lys and the outside world no longer had a place to hide. The memory banks had ceased to accept them; those who tried to cling to their dreams, and to seek refuge in the future, now walked in vain into the Hall of Creation. The dissolving, heatless flame refused to greet them; they no longer awoke, their minds washed clean, a hundred thousand years further down the river of time. No appeal to the Central Computer was of any avail, nor would it explain the reason for its actions. The intended refugees had to turn sadly back into the city, to face the problems of their age.
Alvin had landed at the periphery of the Park, not far from Council Hall. Until the last moment, he was not certain that he could bring the ship into the city, through whatever screens fenced its sky from the outer world. The firmament of Diaspar, like all else about it, was artificial, or at least partly so. Night, with its starry reminder of all that Man had lost, was never allowed to intrude upon the city; it was protected also from the storms that sometimes raged across the desert and filled the sky with moving walls of sand.
The invisible guardians let Alvin pass, and as Diaspar lay spread out beneath him, he knew that he had come home. However much the universe and its mysteries might call him, this was where he was born and where he belonged. It would never satisfy him, yet always he would return. He had gone half-way across the Galaxy to learn this simple truth.
The crowds had gathered even before the ship landed, and Alvin wondered how his fellow-citizens would receive him now that he had returned. He could read their faces easily enough, as he watched them through the viewing screen before he opened the airlock. The dominant emotion seemed to be curiosity—in itself something new in Diaspar. Mingled with that was apprehension, while here and there were unmistakable signs of fear. No one, Alvin thought a little wistfully, seemed glad to see him back.…
The Council, on the other hand, positively