The Complete Stories_ Volume 1 - Isaac Asimov [116]
“He seems quite confident that you will be interested in what he has to say.”
“I dare say.”
“And,” said Ingenescu, “as a favor to me.”
The Novian shrugged. “Put him on and tell him to make it short.”
Ingenescu stepped aside and whispered to George, “Address him as ‘Honorable.’
George swallowed with difficulty. This was it.
George felt himself going moist with perspiration. The thought had come so recently, yet it was in him now so certainly. The beginnings of it had come when he had spoken to Trevelyan, then everything had fermented and billowed into shape while Ingenescu had prattled, and then the Novian’s own remarks had seemed to nail it all into place.
George said, “Honorable, I’ve come to show you the exit from the merry-go-round.” Deliberately, he adopted the Novian’s own metaphor.
The Novian stared at him gravely. “What merry-go-round?”
“You yourself mentioned it, Honorable. The merry-go-round that Novia is on when you come to Earth to—
to get technicians.” (He couldn’t keep his teeth from chattering; from excitement, not fear.) The Novian said, “You’re trying to say that you know a way by which we can avoid patronizing Earth’s mental supermarket. Is that it?”
“Yes, sir. You can control your own Educational system.”
“Umm. Without tapes?”
“Y—yes, Honorable.”
The Novian, without taking his eyes from George, called out, “Ingenescu, get into view.”
The Historian moved to where he could be seen over George’s shoulder.
The Novian said, “What is this? I don’t seem to penetrate.”
“I assure you solemnly,” said Ingenescu, “that whatever this is it is being done on the young man’s own initiative, Honorable. I have not inspired this. I have nothing to do with it.”
“Well, then, what is the young man to you? Why do you call me on his behalf?”
Ingenescu said, “He is an object of study, Honorable. He has value to me and I humor him.”
“What kind of value?”
“It’s difficult to explain; a matter of my profession.”
The Novian laughed shortly. “Well, to each his profession.” He nodded to an invisible person or persons outside plate range. “There’s a young man here, a protégé of Ingenescu or some such thing, who will explain to us how to Educate without tapes.” He snapped his fingers, and another glass of pale liqueur appeared in his hand. “Well, young man?”
The faces on the plate were multiple now. Men and women, both, crammed in for a view of George, their faces molded into various shades of amusement and curiosity.
George tried to look disdainful. They were all, in their own ways, Novians as well as the Earthman, “studying” him as though he were a bug on a pin. Ingenescu was sitting in a corner, now, watching him owl eyed. Fools, he thought tensely, one and all. But they would have to understand. He would make them understand.
He said, “I was at the Metallurgist Olympics this afternoon.”
“You, too?” said the Novian blandly. “It seems all Earth was there.”
“No, Honorable, but I was. I had a friend who competed and who made out very badly because you were using the Beeman machines. His education had included only the Henslers, apparently an older model. You said the modification involved was slight.” George held up two fingers close together in conscious mimicry of the other’s previous gesture. “And my friend had known some time in advance that knowledge of the Beeman machines would be required.”
“And what does that signify?”
“It was my friend’s lifelong ambition to qualify for Novia. He already knew the Henslers. He had to know the Beemans to qualify and he knew that. To learn about the Beemans would have taken just a few more facts, a bit ~more data, a small amount of practice perhaps. With a life’s ambition nudging the scale, he might have managed this—”
“And where would he have obtained a tape for the additional facts and data? Or has Education become a private matter for home study here on Earth?”
There was dutiful laughter from the faces in the background.
George said, “That’s why he didn’t learn, Honorable. He thought he needed a tape. He wouldn’t even try without one, no