dr. stephen spalding said to simms and fredericks: "dr. mcallen agrees with me that the man we shall be looking for on base eighteen may be dead. if this is indicated, we'll attempt to find some evidence of his death before normal ecological operations on eighteen are resumed.
"next, we may find him alive but no longer sane. dr. simms and i are both equipped with drug-guns which will then be used to render him insensible. the charge is sufficient to insure he will not wake up again. in this circumstance, caution will be required since he was left on the base with a loaded gun.
"third, he may be alive and technically sane, but openly or covertly hostile to us." spalding glanced briefly at each of the others, then went on, "it is because of this particular possibility that our contact group here has been very carefully selected. if such has been the result of dr. mcallen's experiment, it will be our disagreeable duty to act as chard's executioners. to add lifelong confinement or further psychological manipulation to the five solitary years chard already has spent would be inexcusable.
"dr. mcallen has told us he did not inform chard of the actual reason he was being marooned—"
"on the very good grounds," mcallen interrupted, "that if chard had been told at the outset what the purpose was, he would have preferred killing himself to allowing the purpose to be achieved. any other human being was chard's antagonist. it would have been impossible for him to comply with another man's announced intentions."
simms nodded. "i'll go along on that point, doctor."
spalding resumed, "it might be a rather immaterial point by now. in any event, chard's information was that an important 'five-year-plan' of the association made it necessary to restrict him for that length of time. we shall observe him closely. if the indications are that he would act against the association whenever he is given the opportunity, our line will be that the five-year-plan has been concluded, and that he is, therefore, now to be released and will receive adequate compensation for his enforced seclusion. as soon as he is asleep, he will, of course, receive euthanasia. but up to that time, everything must be done to reassure him."
he paused again, concluded, "there is the final possibility that dr. mcallen's action has had the results he was attempting to bring about.... ollie, you might speak on that yourself."
mcallen shrugged. "i've already presented my views. essentially, it's a question of whether barney chard was capable of learning that he could live without competing destructively with other human beings. if he has grasped that, he should also be aware by now that base eighteen is presently one of the most interesting spots in the known universe."
simms asked: "do you expect he'll be grateful for what has occurred?"
"we-e-ll," mcallen said judiciously, turning a little pale, "that, of course, depends on whether he is still alive and sane: but if he has survived the five years, i do believe that he will not be dissatisfied with what has happened to him. however"—he shrugged again—"let's get ahead with it. five years has been a long time to find out whether or not i've murdered a man."
in the momentary silence that followed, he setted himself in the chair fredericks had vacated, and glanced over at simms. "you stay seated, mel," he said. "you represent psychology here. use your chair scanner. the plate's still showing no indications of clearing, john?"
"no," said fredericks. "in another two hours we might have a good picture there. hardly before."
mcallen said, "we won't wait for it. simms and i can determine through the scanners approximately what has been going on." he was silent a few seconds; then the blurred red globe in the plate expanded swiftly, filled two thirds of the view space, checked for a moment, then grew once more; finally stopped.
mcallen said irritably, "john, i'm afraid you'll have to take over. my hands don't seem steady enough to handle this properly."
