The State of the Art(57)

more interesting environment.Naturally so.'

' May you live in interesting times. '

'Quite.'

'I can't agree.I can't see the utility or the beauty in

that.All I'll give you is that it might be a relevant

stage to go through.'

'Might be the same thing.A slight time-problem

perhaps.You just happen to be here, now.'

'As are they all.'

I turned round and looked at a few of the people

walking by.The autumn sun was low in the sky, a

vivid red disc, dusty and gaseous and the colour of

blood, and rubbed into these well-fed Western

faces in an image of a poison-price.I looked them

in the eyes, but they looked away; I felt like taking

them by the collar and shaking them, screaming at

them, telling them what they were doing wrong,

telling them what was happening; the plotting

militaries, the commercial frauds, the smooth

corporate and governmental lies, the holocaust

taking place in Kampuchea and telling them too

what was possible, how close they were, what

they could do if they just got their planetary act

together but what was the point?I stood and looked

at them, and found myself - half involuntarily -

glanding slow , so that suddenly they all seemed to be moving in slow-motion, trailing past as though

they were actors in a movie, and seen on a dodgy

print that kept varying between darkness and

graininess. 'What hope for these people, ship?' I

heard myself murmur, voice slurred.It must have

sounded like a squawk to anybody else.I turned

away from them, looking down at the river.

'Their children's children will die before you even

look old, Diziet.Their grandparents are younger

than you are now In your terms, there is no hope

for them.In theirs, every hope.'

'And we're going to use the poor bastards as a

control group.'

'We're probably just going to watch, yes.'

'Sit back and do nothing.'

'Watching is a form of doing.And, we aren't talking

anything away from them.It'll be as if we were

never here.'

'Apart from Linter.'

'Yes,' sighed the ship. 'Apart from Mr Problem.'

'Oh ship, can't we at least stop them on the brink?If

they do press the button, couldn't we junk the

missiles when they're in flight, once they've had

their chance to do it their way and blown it

couldn't we come in then?It would have served its

purpose as a control by then.'

'Diziet, you know that's not true.We're talking

about the next ten thousand years at least, not the

lead time to the Third World War.Being able to

stop it isn't the point; it's whether in the very long

result it is the right thing to do.'

'Great,' I whispered to the swirling dark waters of

the Main. 'So how many infants have to grow up

under the shadow of the mushroom cloud, and just

possibly die screaming inside the radioactive

rubble, just for us to be sure we're doing the right

thing?How certain do we have to be?How long

must we wait?How long must we make them wait?

Who elected us God?'

'Diziet,' the ship said, its voice sorrowful, 'that

question is being asked all the time, and put in as

many different ways as we have the wit to devise

and that moral equation is being re-assessed every

nano-second of every day of every year, and every

time we find some place like Earth - no matter

what way the decision goes - we come closer to

knowing the truth.But we can never be absolutely

certain.Absolute certainty isn't even a choice on

the menu, most times.' There was a

pause.Footsteps came and went behind me on the

bridge.

'Sma' the ship said finally, with a hint of what

might have been frustration in its voice, 'I'm the

smartest thing for a hundred light years radius, and

by a factor of about a million but even I can't

predict where a snooker ball's going to end up

after more than six collisions.'

I snorted, could almost have laughed.

'Well,' the ship said, 'I think you'd better be on your

way now.'

'Oh?'

'Yes.A passer-by has reported a woman on the

bridge, talking to herself and looking at the

water.A policeman is now on his way to

investigate, probably already wondering how cold

the water is, and so I think you should turn to your

left and walk smartly away before he arrives.'

'Right you are,' I said.I shook my head as I walked

off in the dusk light. 'Funny old world, isn't it,

ship?' I said, more to myself than to it.

The ship said nothing.The suspended bridge, big as

it was, responded to my stepping feet, moving up

and down at me like some monstrous and clumsy

lover.

5.2:Not Wanted On Voyage

Back on the ship.

For a few hours the Arbitrary had left the world's snow-flakes unmolested, and gone collecting other

samples at Li's request.

The first time Li saw me on the ship he'd come up

to me and whispered, 'Take him to see The Man

Who Fell To Earth ,' and slunk off.The next time I saw him he claimed it was the first time and I must