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«You recognize me, I imagine,» said Yarlan Zey.
«Of course; I have seen your statue a thousand times. You are Yarlan Zey, and this is Diaspar as it was a billion years ago. I know I am dreaming, and that neither of us is really here.»
«Then you need not be alarmed at anything that happens. So follow me, and remember that nothing can harm you, since whenever you wish you can wake up in Diaspar-in your own age.»
Obediently, Jeserac followed Yarlan Zey into the building, his mind a receptive, uncritical sponge. Some memory, or echo of a memory, warned him of what was going to happen next, and he knew that once he would have shrunk from it in horror. Now, however, he felt no fear. Not only did he feel protected by the knowledge that this experience was not real, but the presence of Yarlan Zey seemed a talisman against any dangers that might confront him.
There were few people drifting down the glideways that led into the depths of the building, and they had no other company when presently they stood in silence beside the long, streamlined cylinder which, Jeserac knew, could carry him out of the city on a journey that would once have shattered his mind. When his guide pointed to the open door, he paused for no more than a moment on the threshold, and then was through.
«You see?» said Yarlan Zey with a smile. «Now relax, and remember that you are safe-that nothing can touch you.»
Jeserac believed him. He felt only the faintest tremor of apprehension as the tu
«Does it not seem strange to you,» began Yarlan Zey, «that though the skies are open to us, we have tried to bury ourselves in the Earth? It is the begi
«But I saw spaceships in the sky above Diaspar,» said Jeserac.
«You will not see them much longer. We have lost contact with the stars, and soon even the planets will be deserted. It took us millions of years to make the outward journey-but only centuries to come home again. And in a little while we will have abandoned almost all of Earth itself.»
«Why did you do it?» asked Jeserac. He knew the answer, yet somehow felt impelled to ask the question.
«We needed a shelter to protect us from two fears-fear of death, and fear of space. We were a sick people, and wanted no further part in the Universe so we pretended that it did not exist. We had seen chaos raging through the stars, and yearned for peace and stability. Therefore Diaspar had to be closed, so that nothing new could ever enter it.
«We designed the city that you know, and invented a false past to conceal our cowardice. Oh, we were not the first to do that-but we were the first to do it so thoroughly. And we redesigned the human spirit, robbing it of ambition and the fiercer passions, so that it would be contented with the world it now possessed.
«It took a thousand years to build the city and all its machines. As each of us completed his task, his mind was washed clean of its memories, the carefully pla
«So at last there came a day when there was not a single man alive in Diaspar; there was only the Central Computer, obeying the orders which we had fed into it, and controlling the Memory Banks in which we were sleeping. There was no one who had any contact with the past-and so at this point, history began.
«Then, one by one, in a predetermined sequence, we were called out of the memory circuits and given flesh again. Like a machine that had just been built and was now set operating for the first time, Diaspar began to carry out the duties for which it had been designed.»
«Yet some of us had had doubts even from the begi
«The Uniques were our invention. They would appear at long intervals and would, if circumstances allowed them, discover if there was anything beyond Diaspar that was worth the effort of contacting. We never imagined that it would take so long for one of them to succeed-nor did we imagine that his success would be so great.»
Despite that suspension of the critical faculties which is the very essence of a dream, Jeserac wondered fleetingly how Yarlan Zey could speak with such knowledge of things that had happened a billion years after his time. It was very confusing… he did not know where in time or space he was.
The journey was coming to an end; the walls of the tu
«The past is over; we did our work, for better or for ill, and that is finished with. When you were created, Jeserac, you were given that fear of the outer world, and that compulsion to stay within the city, that you share with everyone else in Diaspar. You know now that that fear was groundless, that it was artificially imposed on you. I, Yarlan Zey, who gave it to you, now release you from its bondage. Do you understand?»
With those last words, the voice of Yarlan Zey became louder and louder, until it seemed to reverberate through all of space. The subterranean carrier in which he was speeding blurred and trembled around Jeserac as if his dream was coming to an end. Yet as the vision faded, he could still hear that imperious voice thundering into his brain: «You are no longer afraid, Jeserac. You are no longer afraid.»
He struggled up toward wakefulness, as a diver climbs from the ocean depths back to the surface of the sea. Yarlan Zey had vanished, but there was a strange interregnum when voices which he knew but could not recognize talked to him encouragingly, and he felt himself supported by friendly hands. Then like a swift dawn reality came flooding back.
He opened his eyes, and saw Alvin and Hilvar and Gerane standing anxiously beside him. But he paid no heed to them; his mind was too filled with the wonder that now lay spread before him-the panorama of forests and rivers, and the blue vault of the open sky.
He was in Lys; and he was not afraid.
No one disturbed him as the timeless moment imprinted itself forever on his mind. At last, when he bad satisfied himself that this indeed was real, he turned to his companions.
«Thank you, Gerane,» he said. «I never believed you would succeed.»
The psychologist, looking very pleased with himself, was making delicate adjustments to a small machine that hung in the air beside him.
«You gave us some anxious moments,» he admitted. «Once or twice you started to ask questions that couldn’t be answered logically, and I was afraid I would have to break the sequence.»
«Suppose Yarlan Zey had not convinced me-what would you have done then?»
«We would have kept you unconscious, and taken you back to Diaspar where you could have waked up naturally, without ever knowing that you’d been to Lys.»
«And that image of Yarlan Zey you fed into my mind how much of what he said was the truth?»
«Most of it, I believe. I was much more anxious that my little saga should be convincing rather than historically accurate, but Callitrax has examined it and can find no errors. It is certainly consistent with all that we know about Yarlan Zey and the origins of Diaspar.»