The City And The Stars - Arthur C. Clarke [45]
This reply radiated so much unconscious superiority yet it was based on such false assumptions, that Alvin felt his annoyance quite eclipse his alarm.
‘That isn’t true,’ he said flatly. ‘I do not believe you would find another person in Diaspar who would leave the city, even if he wanted to—even if he knew that there was somewhere to go. If you let me return, it would make no difference to Lys.’
‘It is not my decision,’ explained Seranis, ‘and you underestimate the powers of the mind if you think that the barriers that keep your people inside their city can never be broken. However, we do not wish to hold you here against your will, but if you return to Diaspar we must erase all memories of Lys from your mind.’ She hesitated for a moment. ‘This has never arisen before; all your predecessors came here to stay.’
Here was a choice that Alvin refused to accept. He wanted to explore Lys, to learn all its secrets, to discover the ways in which it differed from his own home. But equally he was determined to return to Diaspar, so that he could prove to his friends that he had been no idle dreamer. He could not understand the reasons prompting this desire for secrecy; even if he had, it would not have made any difference to his behaviour.
He realised that he must play for time, or else convince Seranis that what she asked him was impossible.
‘Khedron knows where I am,’ he said. ‘You cannot erase his memories.’
Seranis smiled. It was a pleasant smile, and one that in any other circumstances would have been friendly enough. But behind it Alvin glimpsed, for the first time, the presence of overwhelming and implacable power.
‘You underestimate us, Alvin,’ she replied. ‘That would be very easy. I can reach Diaspar more quickly than I can cross Lys. Other men have come here before, and some of them told their friends where they were going. Yet those friends forgot them, and they vanished from the history of Diaspar.’
Alvin had been foolish to ignore this possibility, though it was obvious now that Seranis had pointed it out. He wondered how many times, in the millions of years since the two cultures were separated, men from Lys had gone into Diaspar in order to preserve their jealously guarded secret. And he wondered just how extensive were the mental powers which these strange people possessed and did not hesitate to use.
Was it safe to make any plans at all? Seranis had promised that she would not read his mind without his consent, but he wondered if there might be circumstances in which that promise would not be kept.…
‘Surely,’ he said, ‘you don’t expect me to make the decision at once. Cannot I see something of your country before I make my choice?’
‘Of course,’ replied Seranis. ‘You can stay here as long as you wish, and still return to Diaspar eventually if you change your mind. But if you can decide within the next few days, it will be very much easier. You do not want your friends to be worried, and the longer you are missing the harder it will be for us to make the necessary adjustments.’
Alvin could appreciate that; he would like to know just what those ‘adjustments’ were. Presumably someone from Lys would contact Khedron—without the Jester ever being aware of it—and tamper with his mind. The fact of Alvin’s disappearance could not be concealed, but the information which he and Khedron had discovered could be obliterated. As the ages passed, Alvin’s name would join that of the other Uniques who had mysteriously vanished without trace, and had then been forgotten.
There were many mysteries here, and he seemed no closer to solving any of them. Was there any purpose behind the curious, one-sided relationship between Lys and Diaspar, or was it merely an historical accident? Who and what were the Uniques, and if the people from Lys could enter Diaspar, why had they not cancelled the memory circuits that held the clue to their existence? Perhaps that was the only question to which Alvin could give a plausible answer. The Central