Chapter 4

 Burroughs gave the commercial, which had nothing to do with interplanetary flight, or anything else of interest. "NOW, ladies and gentlemen," said Burroughs, "our two distinguished¹ scientists have a great deal to tell us about two widely separated points in the universe."

Dr. Bruber smiled into the camera. "Just before we went on the air, Mr. Burroughs," he said, "Ambassador Olbu and I had an interesting discussion about the merits of Earth. He contends that it is unstable²—"

"You are twisting my words around, doctor," interpolated Olbu. "I made it clear that it was not the planet itself, but the people who are objectionable."

"The people spoil the planet?"

"In a sense. The people are dangerous, the planet is not."

"Would it be possible for a planet to spoil the people?"

Olbu seemed to digest the words in his mind before he spoke³: "That is a rather weak effort to shift the blame from the shoulders of those responsible for a sad state of affairs, doctor. You are trying to say there is something in the air, or the water, that makes Earthmen what they are."

"No, I was hinting that there might be something wrong with your planet, Mr. Olbu."

"Nonsense! Nothing is wrong with my planet. My people would not be affected⁴ even if the air and water were bad. We, the children of Xvik, are the highest expression of the human race."

"It's easy to see that," said Dr. Bruber. "You were pointing out to me that Earth's pattern of existence doesn't offer much hope for the future."

"That is right," said Olbu. "Earth's future is not much to look forward to."

"But the planet is worth saving?"

"Definitely."

"Yet the people are a part of the planet."

"You should study logic⁵, Dr. Bruber. You're trying to make me say things that are not logical."

"Okay, let's forget logic and look at what Earth is likely to do if it follows its 'natural' trend. You say it will destroy itself."

"If someone else doesn't do it first," said Olbu. "It will continue to have wars till it exhausts all opportunities for it on the planet. Then it will war in the skies, with other planets, with other stars, finally with other galaxies⁶. Man has a thirst for power, and that thirst is never satisfied. On the other hand, knowledge leads to contentment. If the Earth should seek knowledge, it would forget war."

"Perhaps war is necessary for survival," suggested Dr. Bruber.

"War is seldom fought for survival. It is a result of a struggle for supremacy⁷. And, might I ask, supremacy of what? After you've conquered all the galaxies, what do you have?"

"Olbu seems to have a point there," said Burroughs. "It is now time for a brief message from our sponsor."

The message had nothing to do with war, or knowledge.

"Now, Olbu," began Burroughs, "we were talking about wars, knowledge, power and survival. Do you have anything else to add?"

"Only that Earth has brought this on itself," said Olbu.

"I don't quite understand—" Cecil Burroughs wrinkled his massive brow.

"What our distinguished visitor is trying to say," said Dr. Bruber, "is that a planet is only as stable as its people. And a star system is only as stable as its planets. Isn't that it, Ambassador?"

"You have a round-about method of stating nothing at all," said Olbu. "What I'm trying to tell you is that sometimes worlds must come to an end."

"Exactly," said Dr. Bruber. "I've made a study of GC1242 for many years and I'm quite familiar with it. This star, as many scientists know, became a super nova about fifteen years ago."

"What?" Olbu's eyes grew less slanting⁸ and more round.

"It was an unstable star," said Dr. Bruber. "The Earth, with all its faults, is stable. It may be young, impulsive⁹, inclined to play with fire—atomic fire no less—but it will grow up some day."

"My star, my planet—gone?"

"You haven't been in contact with your home base since you arrived?" Dr. Bruber asked.

"I was not supposed to contact my base," said Olbu, "until—" He stopped abruptly¹⁰, and those with him were aware of the fact that he was using his mental powers to call his superiors.—The lengthening¹¹ silence seemed to give proof to Bruber's words.

"Since you have no world to go to," interrupted the Dr. gently, "I hope you'll be our guest. Perhaps you can teach us something about space flight and your mental powers."

"Oh yes!" said Olbu eagerly. "And if I have by any chance cast reflections on your planet...."

"My dear Mr. Olbu, science has never suffered when scientists have dealt frankly¹² with problems at hand."

"I'm afraid our time is up," put in Cecil Burroughs. "Thank you gentlemen, and I hope our viewers will tune¹³ in again next week when we will have two interesting personalities¹⁴, Sam Katchum, who tames rattlesnakes, and Joe Wattles, who stuffs cobras. Glad we could be together."

Ralph Rodkey shook Dr. Bruber's hand as he emerged from the broadcast room. "You saved my life; you saved my job!"

"Think nothing of it, Ralph. It was nothing I wouldn't have done for myself."

"But if you hadn't known about GC1242 becoming a super nova—"

"You don't think the loss of GC1242 was accidental, do you?"

"Good Lord, Bruber. I don't know anything about those things."

"As our friend Olbu said, Man develops along certain patterns ... first his own planet, then neighboring planets, then star systems."

"You don't think—?"

"I do, Rodkey. I do. Somebody else was just a little more advanced than GC1242 and did to them what they wanted to do to us."

The End

1 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

2 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

6 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

7 supremacy   

n.至上；至高权力

参考例句：

• No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员，无人能胜过她。
• Theoretically,she holds supremacy as the head of the state.从理论上说，她作为国家的最高元首拥有至高无上的权力。

8 slanting   

倾斜的，歪斜的

参考例句：

• The rain is driving [slanting] in from the south. 南边潲雨。
• The line is slanting to the left. 这根线向左斜了。

9 impulsive   

adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的

参考例句：

• She is impulsive in her actions.她的行为常出于冲动。
• He was neither an impulsive nor an emotional man,but a very honest and sincere one.他不是个一冲动就鲁莽行事的人，也不多愁善感.他为人十分正直、诚恳。

10 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

11 lengthening   

（时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长

参考例句：

• The evening shadows were lengthening. 残阳下的影子越拉越长。
• The shadows are lengthening for me. 我的影子越来越长了。 来自演讲部分

12 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

13 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

14 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。