Childhood's End (3 page)

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be in their beliefS, they fear that we will overthrow their gods.

Not necessarily through any deliberate act, but in a subtler fashion. Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No-one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the non-existence of Zeus or Thor-but they have few followers now. The Wainwrights fear, too, that we know the truth about the origins of their faiths. How long, they wonder, have we been observing humanity? Have we watched Mohammed begin the Hegira, or Moses giving the Jews their laws? Do we know all that is false in the stories they believe?"

"And do you?" whispered Stormgren, half to himselL

"That, Rikki, is the fear that torments them, even though they will never admit it openly. Believe me, it gives us no pleasure to destroy men's faiths, but all the world's religions cannot be right-and they know it. Sooner or later man has to learn the truth: but that time is not yet. As for our secrecy, which you are correct in saying aggravates our problems- that is a matter beyond our control. I regret the need for this concealment as much as you do, but the reasons are sufficient. However, I will try and get a statement from my-superiors- which may satisfy you and perhaps placate the Freedom League. Now, please, can we return to the agenda and start recording again?"

"Well?" asked van Ryberg anxiously. "Did you have any luck?"

"I don't know," Stormgren replied wearily as he threw the files down on his desk and collapsed into the seat. "Karellen's consulting his superiors now, whoever or whatever they may be. He won't make any promises."

"Listen," said Pieter abruptly, "I've just thought of something. What reason have we for believing that there is anyone beyond Karellen? Suppose all the Overlords, as we've christened them, are right here on Earth in these ships of theirs?

They may have nowhere else to go, but they're hiding the fact

from us."

"It's an ingenious theory," grinned Stormgren. "But It clashes with what little I know-or think I know-about Karellen's background."

"And how much Is that?"

"Well, he often refers to his position here as something

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temporary, hindering him from getting on with his real work, which I think is some form of mathematics. Once I mentioned Acton's quotation about power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely. I wanted to see how he'd react to that. He gave that cavernous laugh of his, and said: 'There's no danger of that happening to me. In the first case, the sooner I finish my work here, the sooner I can get back to where I belong, a good many light-years from here. And secondly, I don't have absolute power, by any means. I'm just-Supervisor.' Of course, he may have been misleading me. I can never be sure of that."

"He's immortal isn't he?"

"Yes, by our standards, though there's something in the future he seems to fear: I can't imagine what it is. And that's really all I know about him."

"It isn't very conclusive. My theory is that his little fleet's lost in space and is looking for a new home. He doesn't want us to know how few he and his comrades are. Perhaps all those other ships are automatic, and there's no-one in any of them. They're just an imposing façade."

"You," said Stormgren, "have been reading too much science-fiction."

Van Ryberg grinned, a little sheepishly.

"The 'Invasion From Space' didn't turn out quite as expected, did it? My theory would certainly explain why Karellen never shows himself. He doesn't want us to learn that there aren't any more Overlords."

Stormgren shook his head in amused disagreement.

"Your explanation, as usual, is much too ingenious to be true. Though we can only infer its existence, there must be a great civilization behind the Supervisor-and one that's known about man for a very long time. Karellen himself must have been studying us for centuries. Look at his command of English, for example. He taught me how to speak it idiomatically!"

"Have you ever discovered anything he doesn't know?"

"Oh yes, quite often-but only on trivial points. I think he has an absolutely perfect memory, but there are some things he hasn't bothered to learn. For instance, English is the only language he understands completely, though in the last two years he's picked up a good deal of Finnish just to tease me. And one doesn't learn Finnish in a hurry! He can quote great

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slabs of the 'Kalevala', whereas I'm ashamed to say I know only a few lines. He also knows the biographies of all living statesmen, and sometimes I can identify the references he's used. His knowledge of history and science seems complete-. you know how much we've already learned from him. Yet, taken one at a time, I don't think his mental gifts are quite outside the range ot human achievement. But no man could possibly do all the things he does."

"That's more or less what I've decided already," agreed van Ryberg. "We can argue round Karellen forever, but in the end we always come back to the same question-why the devil won't he show himself? Until he does, I'll go on theorizing and the Freedom League will go on fulminating."

He cocked a rebellious eye at the ceiling.

"One dark night, Mr. Supervisor, I hope some reporter takes a rocket up to your ship and climbs in through the back-door with a camera. What a scoop that would be!" -

If Karellen was listening, be gave no sign. But, of course, he never did.

In the first year of their coming, the advent of the Overlords had made less difference to the pattern of human life than might have been expected. Their shadow was everywhere, but it was an unobtrusive shadow. Though there were few great cities on Earth where men could not see one of the silver ships glittering against the zenith, after a little while they were taken as much for granted as the sun, moon or clouds. Most men were probably only dimly aware that their steadily rising standards of living were due to the Overlords. When they stopped to think of it-which was seldom-they realized that those silent ships had brought peace to all the world for the first time in history, and were duly grateful.

But these were negative and unspectacular benefits, accepted and soon forgotten. The Overlords remained aloof, hiding their faces from mankind. Karellen could command respect and admiration: he could win nothing deeper so long as he pursued his present policy. It was hard not to feel resentment against these Olympians who spoke to man only over the radio-teleprinter circuits at United Nations Headquarters. What took place between Karellen and Stormgren was never publicly revealed, and sometimes Stormgren himself wondered why the Supervisor found these interviews necessary. Perhaps he

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felt the need of direct contact with one human being at least:

perhaps he realized that Stormgren needed this form of personal support If this was the explanation, the Secretary-General appreciated it: he did not mind if the Freedom League referred to him contemptuously as "Karellen's office-boy".

The Overlords had never had any dealings with individual

states and governments: they bad taken the United Nations Organization as they found it, given instructions for installing the necessary radio equipment, and issued their orders through the mouth of the Secretary-General. The Soviet delegate had quite correctly pointed out, at considerable length and upon innumerable occasions, that this was not in accordance with the Charter. Karellen did not seem to worry.

It was amazing that so many abuses, follies and evils could be dispelled by those messages from the sky. With the arrival of the Overlords, nations knew that they need no longer fear each other, and they guessed-even befbre the experiment was made-that their existing weapons were certainly impotent against a civilization that could bridge the stars. So at once the greatest single obstacle to the happiness of mankind had been removed.

The Overlords seemed largely indifferent to forms of government, provided that they were not oppressive or corrupt. Earth still possessed democracies, monarchies, benevolent dictatorships, communism and capitalism. This was a source

of great surprise to many simple souls who were quite convinced that theirs was the only possible way of life. Others believed that Karellen was merely waiting to introduce a system that would sweep away all existing forms of society, and so had not bothered with minor political reforms. But this, like all other speculations concerning the Overlords, was pure guesswork. No-one knew their motives: and no-one knew towards what future they were shepherding mankind.

3

STORMOREN was sleeping badly these nights, which was strange, since soon he would be putting aside the cares of ofilce forever. He had served mankind for forty years, and its masters for five, and few men could look back upon a life that had seen

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so manyof its ambitions achieved. Perhaps that was the trouble:

in the years of retirement, however many they might be, he would have no further goals to give any zest to life. Since Martha had died and the children had established their own families, his ties with the world seemed to have weakened. It might be, too, that he was beginning to identify himself with the Overlords, and thus become detached from humanity.

This was another of those restless nights when his brain went on turning like a machine whose governor had failed. He knew better than to woo sleep any further, and reluctantly climbed out of bed. Throwing on his dressing-gown, he strolled out on to the roof garden of his modest flat. There was not one of his direct subordinates who did not possess much more luxurious quarters, but this place was ample for Stormgren's needs. He had reached the position where neither personal possessions nor official ceremony could add anything to his stature. -

The night was warm, almost oppressive, but the sky was clear and a brilliant moon hung low in the south-west. Ten kilometres away, the lights of New York glowed on the skyline like a dawn frozen in the act of breaking.

Stormgren raised his eyes above the sleeping city, climbing again the heights that he alone of living men had scaled. Far away though it was, he could see the hull of Karellen's ship glinting in the moonlight. He wondered what the Supervisor was doing, for he did not believe that the Overlords ever slept.

High above, a meteor thrust its shining spear through the dome of the sky. The luminous trail glowed faintly for a while:

then it died away, leaving only the stars. The reminder was brutal: in a hundred years, Karellen would still be leading mankind towards the goal that he alone could see, but four months from now another man would be Secretary-General. That in itself Stormgren was far from minding-but it meant that little time was left if he ever hoped to learn what lay behind that thickened screen.

Only in the last few days had he dared to admit that the Overlords' secretiveness was beginning to obsess him. Until recently, his faith in Karellen had kept him free from doubts; but now, he thought a little wryly, the protests of the Freedom League were beginning to have their effect upon him. It was true that the propaganda about Man's enslavement was no

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more than propaganda. Few people seriously believed it, or really wished for a return to the old days. Men had grown accustomed to Karellen's imperceptible rule-but they were becoming impatient to know who ruled them. And how could they be blamed?

Though it was much the largest, the Freedom League was only one of the organizations that opposed Karellen-and, consequently, the humans who co-operated with the Overlords. The objçctions and policies of these groups varied enormously:

some took the religious viewpoint, while others were merely expressing a sense of inferiority. They felt, with good reason, much as a cultured Indian of the nineteenth century must have done as he contemplated the British Raj. The invaders had brought peace and prosperity to Earth-but who knew what the cost might be? History was not reassuring: even the most peaceable of contacts between races at very different cultural levels had often resulted in the obliteration of the more backward society. Nations, as well as individuals, could lose their spirit when confronted by a challenge which they could not meet. And the civilization of the Overlords, veiled in mystery though it might be, was the greatest challenge Man had ever faced.

There was a faint click from the facsimile machine in the adjoining room as it ejected the hourly, summary sent out by Central News. Stormgren wandered indoors and ruffled halfheartedly through the sheets. On the other side of the world, the Freedom League had inspired a not-very-original headline.

"IS MAN RULED BY MONSTERS?" asked the paper, and went on to quote: "Addressing a meeting in Madras today, Dr. C. V.

Krishnan, President of the Eastern Division of the Freedom League, said: 'The explanation of the Overlords' behaviour Is quiet simple: Their physical form is so alien and repulsive that they dare not show themselves to humanity. I challenge the Supervisor to deny this."

Stormgren threw down the sheet in disgust. Even if the charge were true, did it really matter? The idea was an old one, but it had never worried him. He did not believe that there was my biological form, however strange, which he could not accept Lii time and, perhaps, even find beautiful. The mind, not the body, was all that mattered. If only he could convince Karellen of this, the Overlords might change their policy. It was certain that they could not be half as hideous as the

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imaginative drawings that had filled the papers soon after their coming to Earth!

Yet it was not, Stormgren knew, entirely consideration for his successor that made him anxious to see the end of this state of affairs. He was honest enough to admit that, in the final analysis, his, main motive was simple human curiosity. He bad grown to know Karellen as a person, and he would never be satisfied until he had also discovered what kind of creature he might be.

When Stormgren fIiiled to arrive at his usual time next morning, Pieter van Ryberg was surprised and a little annoyed. Though the Secretary General often made a number of calls before reaching his own office, he invariably left word that he was doing so. This morning, to make matters worse, there had been several urgent messages for Stormgren. Van Ryberg rang haIfa dozen departments to try and locate him, then gave it up in disgust.