The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 5: The Eye of the Sibyl

by Philip K. Dick

  “No,” he said shortly.

  “I wonder why the college picked it, then,” Mary said.

  “What the hell,” he said, “is cosmogony?”

  “How the universe came into being. Aren’t you interested in how the universe—” She paused, eyeing him. “You certainly won’t be asking for printouts of any classified material,” she said meditatively. “Maybe that’s it,” she murmured, to herself. “They won’t have to watchdog you.”

  “I can be trusted with classified material,” he said.

  “Can you? Do you know yourself? But you’ll be getting into that when the College bombards you with early Greek thought. ‘Know thyself.’ Apollo’s motto at Delphi. It sums up half of Greek philosophy.”

  Bibleman said, “I’m not going up before a military tribunal for making public classified military material.” He thought, then, about the Panther Engine and he realized, fully realized, that a really grim message had been spelled out in that little lecture by Major Casals. “I wonder what Herbie the Hyena’s motto is,” he said.

  “ ‘I am determined to prove a villain,’ ” Mary said. “ ‘And hate the idle pleasures of these days. Plots have I laid.’ ” She reached out to touch him on the arm. “Remember? The Herbie the Hyena cartoon version of Richard the Third.”

  “Mary Lorne,” Major Casals said, reading off the list.

  “Excuse me.” She went up, returned with her envelope, smiling. “Leprology,” she said to Bibleman. “The study and treatment of leprosy. I’m kidding; it’s chemistry.”

  “You’ll be studying classified material.” Bibleman said.

  “Yes,” she said. “I know.”

  On the first day of his study program, Bob Bibleman set his College input-output terminal on AUDIO and punched the proper key for his coded course.

  “Thales of Miletus,” the terminal said. “The founder of the Ionian school of natural philosophy.”

  “What did he teach?” Bibleman said.

  “That the world floated on water, was sustained by water, and originated in water.”

  “That’s really stupid,” Bibleman said.

  The College terminal said, “Thales based this on the discovery of fossil fish far inland, even at high altitudes. So it is not as stupid as it sounds.” It showed on its holoscreen a great deal of written information, no part of which struck Bibleman as very interesting. Anyhow, he had requested AUDIO. “It is generally considered that Thales was the first rational man in history,” the terminal said.

  “What about Ikhnaton?” Bibleman said.

  “He was strange.”

  “Moses?”

  “Likewise strange.”

  “Hammurabi?”

  “How do you spell that?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ve just heard the name.”

  “Then we will discuss Anaximander,” the College terminal said. “And, in a cursory initial survey, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Paramenides, Melissus—wait a minute; I forgot Heraclitus and Cratylus. And we will study Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Zeno—”

  “Christ,” Bibleman said.

  “That’s another program,” the College terminal said.

  “Just continue,” Bibleman said.

  “Are you taking notes?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You seem to be in a state of conflict.”

  Bibleman said, “What happens to me if I flunk out of the College?”

  “You go to jail.”

  “I’ll take notes.”

  “Since you are so driven—”

  “What?”

  “Since you are so full of conflict, you should find Empedocles interesting. He was the first dialectical philosopher. Empedocles believed that the basis of reality was an antithetical conflict between the forces of Love and Strife. Under Love the whole cosmos is a duly proportioned mixture, called a krasis. This krasis is a spherical deity, a single perfect mind which spends all its time—”

  “Is there any practical application to any of this?” Bibleman interrupted.

  “The two antithetical forces of Love and Strife resemble the Taoist elements of Yang and Yin with their perpetual interaction from which all change takes place.”

  “Practical application.”

  “Twin mutually opposed constituents.” On the holoscreen a schematic diagram, very complex, formed. “The two-rotor Panther Engine.”

  “What?” Bibleman said, sitting upright in his seat. He made out the large words

  PANTHER HYDRODRIVE SYSTEM TOP SECRET

  above the schematic comprising the readout. Instantly he pressed the PRINT key; the machinery of the terminal whirred and three sheets of paper slid down into the RETRIEVE slot.

  They overlooked it, Bibleman realized, this entry in the College’s memory banks relating to the Panther Engine. Somehow the cross-referencing got lost. No one thought of pre-Socratic philosophy—who would expect an entry on an engine, a modern-day top-secret engine, under the category PHILOSOPHY, PRE-SOCRATIC, subheading EMPEDOCLES?

  I’ve got it in my hands, he said to himself as he swiftly lifted out the three sheets of paper. He folded them up and stuck them into the notebook the College had provided.

  I’ve hit it, he thought. Right off the bat. Where the hell am I going to put these schematics? Can’t hide them in my locker. And then he thought, Have I committed a crime already, by asking for a written printout?

  “Empedocles,” the terminal was saying, “believed in four elements as being perpetually rearranged: earth, water, air, and fire. These elements eternally—”

  Click. Bibleman had shut the terminal down. The holoscreen faded to opaque gray.

  Too much learning doth make a man slow, he thought as he got to his feet and started from the cubicle. Fast of wit but slow of foot. Where the hell am I going to hide the schematics? he asked himself again as he walked rapidly down the hall toward the ascent tube. Well, he realized, they don’t know I have them; I can take my time. The thing to do is hide them at a random place, he decided, as the tube carried him to the surface. And even if they find them they won’t be able to trace them back to me, not unless they go to the trouble of dusting for fingerprints.

  This could be worth billions of dollars, he said to himself. A great joy filled him and then came the fear. He discovered that he was trembling. Will they ever be pissed, he said to himself. When they find out, I won’t be pissing purple, they’ll be pissing purple. The College itself will, when it discovers its error.

  And the error, he thought, is on its part, not mine. The College fucked up and that’s too bad.

  In the dorm where his bunk was located, he found a laundry room maintained by a silent robot staff, and when no robot was watching he hid the three pages of schematics near the bottom of a huge pile of bed sheets. As high as the ceiling, this pile. They won’t get down to the schematics this year. I have plenty of time to decide what to do.

  Looking at his watch, he saw that the afternoon had almost come to an end. At five o’clock he would be seated in the cafeteria, eating dinner with Mary.

  She met him a little after five o’clock; her face showed signs of fatigue.

  “How’d it go?” she asked him as they stood in line with their trays.

  “Fine,” Bibleman said.

  “Did you get to Zeno? I always like Zeno; he proved that motion is impossible. So I guess I’m still in my mother’s womb. You look strange.” She eyed him.

  “Just sick of listening to how the earth rests on the back of a giant turtle.”

  “Or is suspended on a long string,” Mary said. Together they made their way among the other students to an empty table. “You’re not eating much.”

  “Feeling like eating,” Bibleman said as he drank his cup of coffee, “is what got me here in the first place.”

  “You could flunk out.”

  “And go to jail.”

  Mary said, “The College is programmed to say that. Much of it is probably just threats. Talk loudly and carr
y a small stick, so to speak.”

  “I have it,” Bibleman said.

  “You have what?” She ceased eating and regarded him.

  He said, “The Panther Engine.”

  Gazing at him, the girl was silent.

  “The schematics,” he said.

  “Lower your goddam voice.”

  “They missed a citation in the memory storage. Now that I have them I don’t know what to do. Just start walking, probably. And hope no one stops me.

  “They don’t know? The College didn’t self-monitor?”

  “I have no reason to think it’s aware of what it did.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Mary said softly. “On your first day. You had better do a lot of slow, careful thinking.”

  “I can destroy them,” he said. “Or sell them.”

  He said, “I looked them over. There’s an analysis on the final page. The Panther—”

  “Just say it,”Mary said.

  “It can be used as a hydroelectric turbine and cut costs in half. I couldn’t understand the technical language, but I did figure out that. Cheap power source. Very cheap.”

  “So everyone would benefit.”

  He nodded.

  “They really screwed up,” Mary said. “What was it Casals told us? ‘Even if someone fed data into the College about the—about it, the College would eject the data.’ ” She began eating slowly, meditatively. “And they’re withholding it from the public. It must be industry pressure. Nice.”

  “What should I do?” Bibleman said.

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  “What I was thinking is that I could take the schematics to one of the colony planets where the authorities have less control. I could find an independent firm and make a deal with them. The government wouldn’t know how—”

  “They’d figure out where the schematics came from,” Mary said. “They’d trace it back to you.”

  “Then I better burn them.”

  Mary said, “You have a very difficult decision to make. On the one hand, you have classified information in your possession which you obtained illegally. On the other—”

  “I didn’t obtain it illegally. The College screwed up.”

  Calmly, she continued, “You broke the law, military law, when you asked for a written transcript. You should have reported the breach of security as soon as you discovered it. They would have rewarded you. Major Casals would have said nice things to you.”

  “I’m scared,” Bibleman said, and he felt the fear moving around inside him, shifting about and growing; as he held his plastic coffee cup it shook, and some of the coffee spilled onto his uniform.

  Mary, with a paper napkin, dabbed at the coffee stain.

  “I won’t come off,” she said.

  “Symbolism,” Bibleman said. “Lady Macbeth. I always wanted to have a dog named Spot so I could say, ‘Out, out, damned Spot.’ ”

  “I am not going to tell you what to do,” Mary said. “This is a decision that you will make alone. It isn’t ethical for you even to discuss it with me; that could be considered conspiracy and put us both in prison.”

  “Prison,” he echoed.

  “You have it within your—Christ, I was going to say, ‘You have it within your power to provide a cheap power source to human civilization.’ ” She laughed and shook her head. “I guess this scares me, too. Do what you think is right. If you think it’s right to publish the schematics—”

  “I never thought of that. Just publish them. Some magazine or newspaper. A slave printing construct could print it and distribute it all over the solar system in fifteen minutes.” All I have to do, he realized, is pay the fee and then feed in the three pages of schematics. As simple as that. And then spend the rest of my life in jail or anyhow in court. Maybe the adjudication would go in my favor. There are precedents in history where vital classified material—military classified material—was stolen and published, and not only was the person found innocent but we now realize that he was a hero; he served the welfare of the human race itself, and risked his life.

  Approaching their table, two armed military security guards closed in on Bob Bibleman; he stared at them, not believing what he saw but thinking, Believe it.

  “Student Bibleman?” one of them said.

  “It’s on my uniform,” Bibleman said.

  “Hold out your hands, Student Bibleman.” The larger of the two security guards snapped handcuffs on him.

  Mary said nothing; she continued slowly eating.

  In Major Casal’s office Bibleman waited, grasping the fact that he was being—as the technical term had it—“detained.” He felt glum. He wondered what they would do. He wondered if he had been set up. He wondered what he would do if he were charged. He wondered why it was taking so long. And then he wondered what it was all about really and he wondered whether he would understand the grand issues if he continued with his courses in COSMOLOGY COSMOGONY PRE-SOCRATICS.

  Entering the office, Major Casals said briskly, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

  “Can these handcuffs be removed?” Bibleman said. They hurt his wrists; they had been clapped on to him as tightly as possible. His bone structure ached.

  “We couldn’t find the schematics,” Casals said, seating himself behind his desk.

  “What schematics?”

  “For the Panther Engine.”

  “There aren’t supposed to be any schematics for the Panther Engine. You told us that in orientation.”

  “Did you program your terminal for that deliberately? Or did it just happen to come up?”

  “My terminal programmed itself to talk about water,” Bibleman said. “The universe is composed of water.”

  “It automatically notified security when you asked for a written transcript. All written transcripts are monitored.”

  “Fuck you,” Bibleman said.

  Major Casals said, “I tell you what. We’re only interested in getting the schematics back; we’re not interested in putting you in the slam. Return them and you won’t be tried.”

  “Return what?” Bibleman said, but he knew it was a waste of time. “Can I think it over?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I go? I feel like going to sleep. I’m tired. I feel like having these cuffs off.”

  Removing the cuffs, Major Casals said, “We made an agreement, with all of you, an agreement between the College and the students, about classified material. You entered into that agreement.”

  “Freely?” Bibleman said.

  “Well, no. But the agreement was known to you. When you discovered the schematics for the Panther Engine encoded in the College’s memory and available to anyone who happened for any reason, any reason whatsoever, to ask for a practical application of pre-Socratic—”

  “I was as surprised as hell,” Bibleman said. “I still am.”

  “Loyalty is an ethical principle. I’ll tell you what; I’ll waive the punishment factor and put it on the basis of loyalty to the College. A responsible person obeys laws and agreements entered into. Return the schematics and you can continue your courses here at the College. In fact, we’ll give you permission to select what subjects you want; they won’t be assigned to you. I think you’re good college material. Think it over and report back to me tomorrow morning, between eight and nine, here in my office. Don’t talk to anyone; don’t try to discuss it. You’ll be watched. Don’t try to leave the grounds. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Bibleman said woodenly.

  He dreamed that night that he had died. In his dream vast spaces stretched out, and his father was coming toward him, very slowly, out of a dark glade and into the sunlight. His father seemed glad to see him, and Bibleman felt his father’s love.

  When he awoke, the feeling of being loved by his father remained. As he put on his uniform, he thought about his father and how rarely, in actual life, he had gotten that love. It made him feel lonely, now, his father being dead and his mother as well. Killed in a nuclear-power accident, along wit
h a whole lot of other people

  They say someone important to you waits for you on the other side, he thought. Maybe by the time I die Major Casals will be dead and he will be waiting for me, to greet me gladly. Major Casals and my father combined as one.

  What am I going to do? he asked himself. They have waived the punitive aspects; it’s reduced to essentials, a matter of loyalty. Am I a loyal person? Do I qualify?

  The hell with it, he said to himself. He looked at his watch. Eight-thirty. My father would be proud of me, he thought. For what I am going to do.

  Going into the laundry room, he scoped out the situation. No robots in sight. He dug down in the pile of bed sheets, found the pages of schematics, took them out, looked them over, and headed for the tube that would take him to Major Casal’s office.

  “You have them,” Casals said as Bibleman entered. Bibleman handed the three sheets of paper over to him.

  “And you made no other copies?” Casals asked.

  “No.”

  “You give me your word of honor?”

  “Yes,” Bibleman said.

  “You are herewith expelled from the College,” Major Casals said.

  “What?” Bibleman said.

  Casals pressed a button on his desk. “Come in.”

  The door opened and Mary Lorne stood there.

  “I do not represent the College,” Major Casals said to Bibleman. “You were set up.”

  “I am the College,” Mary said.

  Major Casals said, “Sit down, Bibleman. She will explain it to you before you leave.”

  “I failed?” Bibleman said.

  “You failed me,” Mary said. “The purpose of the test was to teach you to stand on your own feet, even if it meant challenging authority. The covert message of institutions is: ‘Submit to that which you psychologically construe as an authority.’ A good school trains the whole person; it isn’t a matter of data and information; I was trying to make you morally and psychologically complete. But a person can’t be commanded to disobey. You can’t order someone to rebel. All I could do was give you a model, an example.”