“One more thing,” Mergon went on, as Seaton and Crane appeared in the flesh beside him. “Since the Llurdi refuse to learn any language except their own, I must teach you Llurdan,” and he held out two Jelman thought-caps:
“I prefer my own,” Seaton said, after a very short trial.
“So will you, I think,” and he sent back for four of the Skylark’s latest models.
The two Jelmi put two of them on. “Oh, I do indeed!” Luloy exclaimed, and Mergon added, “As was to have been expected, we have much to learn from you, friends.”
“But listen,” Seaton said. “You gave the ape all the dope on that fourth-dimensional thing. Isn’t he apt to toss a superatomic into our Brain with it?”
“There’s no possibility whatever of that, either soon or later. Not soon because, since they work slowly and thoroughly, it will be months yet before they have a full-scale machine. Nor later, because the mutual destruction of four hundred eighty-two populated planets — excuse me, four hundred eighty, now — is not logical in any system of logic, however cockeyed that system may be.”
It took Seaton a fraction of a second to get it, but when he did, it rocked him. “Oh! I hadn’t figured on you coming all the way in. But does he know you will?”
“He certainly does know it!” Luloy broke in. “Beyond a doubt; or what you call peradventure.”
“Oh,” Seaton said again. “And that’s why he isn’t going to resume hostilities with ordinary weapons, either? Thanks, you two, a million. We appreciate it. Okay; we’re ready, I guess.”
The four projections appeared in front of the llanzlan’s desk. He was expecting them.
“Well?” he asked.
Mergon began to explain, but Seaton cut him off. Mergon could not possibly feel equal to Klazmon in a face-to-face; Seaton could and did.
“I can explain us better than you can, friend Mergon,” he said. Then, to the Llurd, “We came here to visit the human beings whom you call the Jelmi. We did not have, have not now, and do not expect to have any interest whatever in you Llurdi or in anything Llurdan. Our purpose is to promote intergalactic commerce and interhuman friendship.
The various human races have different abilities and different artifacts and different knowledges — many of each of which are of benefit to other human races.
“You made an unprovoked attack on us. Know now, Llanzlan Klazmon, that I do not permit invasion, either mental or physical, by any entity — man, beast, god, devil or Llurd — of this or of any other galaxy. Although I can imagine few subjects upon which you and I could converse profitably, if you wish to talk to me as one intelligent and logical entity to another I will so converse. But I repeat — I will not permit invasion.
“If you wish to resume battle on that account that is your right and your privilege. You will note, however, that our attack was metered precisely to a point just below your maximum capability of resistance. Know now that if you force us to destroy your city and perhaps your world it will not have been the first city or the first world we have been forced to destroy; nor, with a probability of point nine nine nine, will it have been the last. Do you want peace with us or war?”
“Peace. Data sufficient,” Klazmon said immediately. “I have recorded the fact that there is at least one Jelmoid race other than the Jelmi themselves of which some representatives are both able and willing to employ almost Llurdan logic,” and he switched his attention from the projections to the tape he had been studying — cutting communications as effectively as though he had removed himself to another world.
Back in the Mallidaxian, while Luloy stared at Seaton almost in awe, Mergon said, “That was a beautiful job, Doctor Seaton. Perfect! Much better than I could have done. You used flawless Llurdan logic.”
“Thanks to the ace in the hole you gave me with your briefing, I could do it. I’d hate to have to run a bluff on that ape. What’s next on the agenda, Savant Mergon?”
“Make it ‘Merg’, please; and I’ll call you ‘Dick’. Now that this is settled, why don’t you put your fortress-planetoid on automatic and let us bring you all here, so that our peoples may become friends in person and may begin work upon tasks of mutual interest?”
“That’s a thought, friend; that really is a thought,” Seaton said, and it was done forthwith.
Aboard the Mallidaxian, Seaton cut the social amenities as short as he courteously could; then went with inseparable Mergon and Luloy to Tammon’s laboratory. That fourth dimensional gizmo was what he was interested in. With his single-mindedness that was all he was interested in, at the moment, of the entire Jelman culture. All four donned Skylark thought-helmets and Seaton set out to learn everything there was to be known about that eight million cubic feet of esoteric apparatus. And Mergon, who didn’t know much of anything about recent developments, was eager to catch up.
Seaton did not learn all about the fourth-dimensional device in one day, nor in one week; but when he had it all filed away in the Brain he asked, “Is that all you have of it?”
He did not mean to be insulting; he was only greatly surprised.
The old savant bristled and Seaton apologized hastily. “I didn’t mean to belittle your achievement in any sense, sir. It’s probably the greatest breakthrough ever made. But it doesn’t seem to be complete.”
“Of course it isn’t complete!” Tammon snapped. “I’ve been working on it only—”
“Oh, I didn’t mean that,” Seaton broke in. “The concept is incomplete. In several ways. For instance, if fourth dimensional translation is used as a weapon, you have no defense against it.”
“Of course there’s no defense against it!” Tammon defended his brain-child like a tigress defending her young. “By the very nature of things there can’t be any defense against it!”
At that, politeness went by the board. “You’re wrong,” Seaton said, flatly. “By the very nature of things there has to be. All nature is built on a system of checks and balances.
Doing a job so terrifically big and so brand new, I doubt if anybody could get the whole thing at once. Let’s go over the theory again, together, with a microscope, to see if we can’t add something to it somewhere?”
Tammon agreed, but reluctantly. Deep down in his own mind he did not believe that any other mind could improve upon any particular of his work. As the review progressed, however, he became more and more enthusiastic. As well he might; for the mathematics section of Richard Seaton’s multi-compartmented mind contained, indexed and cross-index, all the work done by countless grand masters of the subject during half a million years.
Luloy started to pull her helmet off, but Mergon stopped her with a direct thought. “I’m lost, too, sweet, but keep on listening. We can get bits here and there — and we’ll probably never have the chance again to watch two such minds at work.”
“Hold it!” Seaton snapped, half an hour later. “Back up — there! This integral here. Limits zero to pi over two. You’re limiting the thing to a large but definitely limited volume of your generalized N-dimensional space. I think it should be between zero and infinity — and while we’re at it let’s scrap half of the third determinant in that no-space-no-time complex. Let’s see what happens if we substitute the gamma function here and the chi there and the xi there and the omicron down there in the corner.”
“But why?” the old savant protested. “I don’t see any possible reason for any of it.”
Seaton grinned. “There isn’t any — any more than there was for your original brainstorm. If there had been the Norlaminian would have worked this whole shebang out a hundred thousand years ago. It’s nothing but a hunch, but it’s strong enough so I want to follow it up — okay? Fine then, integrating that, we get…”