The Paradox of the Sets Read online

  “And where can we go?” asked Mariel, quietly.

  The young man didn’t answer. Instead, he said, “You’ve been to the colonies. You’ve seen what kind of people are there, and what they’re doing. I haven’t, and you can’t tell me what you found because except for the official version that fat politician just gave to the UN and the TV-parasites of the world-at-large it’s secret. But can you look me straight in the eye and say I’m wrong when I talk about acquisitiveness and rapaciousness?”

  She did look him straight in the eye, but she said, “No. And I don’t have to. We accept that. It’s you that won’t.”

  The young man’s face did not change. He merely looked away, back toward his father.

  “Forget it,” said Alexis Alexander. “This isn’t what we’re here for. You’re right—the argument’s being fought out behind the TV screen. What matters to us is where we fit in—with one another as well as with all that. I’ve been away for five years. I’m soon going to be away for more years...how many I can’t tell. Can’t we just for a moment set all the arguments aside and meet on common ground?”

  It was impossible to tell whether the appeal reached the younger man or not. When he spoke, it was to say, “Where did you get those scars?”

  The older man touched his face reflexively. “Dendra,” he said. “Something like a big cat. It was several days before I could get back to the ship, by which time it had partly scarred over and was healing up as best it could. It was too late to make a clean repair without plastic surgery. I could get them removed now, but....”

  “But you rather like them.”

  “But I don’t know when I can find the time.”

  “So you’ll take them exploring. They’ll help your image. I suppose you can’t tell me what you’re exploring for?”

  “I don’t know. Not now, though they might unfreeze the word before we actually set out. Mariel and Karen will probably be going with me. And one or two more, appointed by the UN. Not Nathan Parrick—he’s got his own ambitions here on Earth. Some other UN personnel. But I can’t tell you where we’re going. Someday....”

  “Someday you can write a book about it,” said Peter. “When you’re old and it doesn’t matter any more. Or someone will ghost it for you because you can’t even grip a pen or push the button on a dictaphone.”

  “Maybe,” said the older man.

  “What’s the ship going to be called?” asked Peter. “The Icarus, maybe?”

  “I don’t know. It’s not for me to choose.”

  The younger man seemed to be much more sure of himself in talking to his father than he had been in talking to the girl. It was, in fact, much easier. All he had to do was resist.

  Now he sighed. “I think I’d better go,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any common ground left where we can meet. There was none when I saw you five years ago, when I was seventeen and you were about to lift off for the stars. We’re worlds apart even while we’re both on Earth. My life is here but yours, no matter where your feet are resting, is anywhere but. We were only connected in the first place by an accident of heredity, and it’s a long time now since my mother died. You were halfway across the world even then—lost in some carefully-preserved wilderness so we couldn’t even reach you with a call for help. That’s where you always will be. I suppose some might argue that somebody has to be out in the wilderness, but I don’t see that. I never have. So much for heredity.”

  Then he left.

  Alexis Alexander stood up and watched the door close. Then he went to the side table to refill his glass. When he turned again to face his companions his face was expressionless.

  “Not a great success,” he commented.

  Neither of the women bothered to signal their agreement.

  “I wanted to tell him what we’ll be looking for,” he went on. “I wanted to tell him that we found traces of someone else...footprints on Crusoe’s island. I wanted to tell him that maybe they’d turned to thinking his way, deciding that one world is enough and turning their attention to developing themselves, finding new goals in their minds and hearts. But I couldn’t. Not just because it’s secret but because he wouldn’t have understood. He couldn’t. What he means by seeking goals within oneself means anything but biological engineering. He still sees human nature as something God-given and Christ-perfected. He wants us all to be what one man twenty-three centuries ago told us that we can and ought to be. Even unto the crucifixion.”

  “There’s nothing you could ever say or do,” said Mariel. “He’s right when he says that you’re worlds apart. He’s right when he says that the accident of heredity no longer signifies any kind of connection between you.”

  “Sure,” said Alex. “I know that. I’m irredeemable. Even he’s given up on me.”

  “He’s entitled to go his own way,” said Karen. “And so are we.”

  “No matter how hard I try,” the man said, in a distant voice that was already recovering its customary note of whimsical sobriety, “I can’t shake the notion that in the final analysis all of this...Earth, the star-worlds, the Sets and their makers, and everything that may yet be there for us to find...all of this might be a kind of cosmic joke. When all is said and done we might just be another evolutionary dead end. And God might be a giant squid.”

  “You can shake it,” Karen assured him dryly. “If you really wanted to. All you have to do is try.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Brian Stableford was born in Yorkshire in 1948. He taught at the University of Reading for several years, but is now a full-time writer. He has written many science-fiction and fantasy novels, including The Empire of Fear, The Werewolves of London, Year Zero, The Curse of the Coral Bride, The Stones of Camelot, and Prelude to Eternity. Collections of his short stories include a long series of Tales of the Biotech Revolution, and such idiosyncratic items as Sheena and Other Gothic Tales and The Innsmouth Heritage and Other Sequels. He has written numerous nonfiction books, including Scientific Romance in Britain, 1890-1950; Glorious Perversity: The Decline and Fall of Literary Decadence; Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia; and The Devil’s Party: A Brief History of Satanic Abuse. He has contributed hundreds of biographical and critical articles to reference books, and has also translated numerous novels from the French language, including books by Paul Féval, Albert Robida, Maurice Renard, and J. H. Rosny the Elder.

  BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY BRIAN STABLEFORD

  Alien Abduction: The Wiltshire Revelations * Balance of Power (Daedalus Mission #5) * The Best of Both Worlds and Other Ambiguous Tales * Beyond the Colors of Darkness and Other Exotica Changelings and Other Metaphoric Tales * The City of the Sun (Daedalus Mission #4) * Complications and Other Science Fiction Stories * The Cosmic Perspective and Other Black Comedies Critical Threshold (Daedalus Mission #2) * The Cthulhu Encryption: A Romance of Piracy * The Cure for Love and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution * The Dragon Man: A Novel of the Future * The Eleventh Hour * The Fenris Device (Hooded Swan #5) * Firefly: A Novel of the Far Future * Les Fleurs du Mal: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution * The Florians (Daedalus Mission #1) * The Gardens of Tantalus and Other Delusions * The Gates of Eden: A Science Fiction Novel * The Great Chain of Being and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution * Halycon Drift (Hooded Swan #1) * The Haunted Bookshop and Other Apparitions * In the Flesh and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution * The Innsmouth Heritage and Other Sequels * Journey to the Core of Creation: A Romance of Evolution * Kiss the Goat: A Twenty-First-Century Ghost Story * Luscinia: A Romance of Nightingales and Roses * The Mad Trist: A Romance of Bibliomania * The Moment of Truth: A Novel of the Future * Nature’s Shift: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution * An Oasis of Horror: Decadent Tales and Contes Cruels * The Paradise Game (Hooded Swan #4) * The Paradox of the Sets (Daedalus Mission #6) * The Plurality of Worlds: A Sixteenth-Century Space Opera * Prelude to Eternity: A Romance of the First Time Machine * Promised Land (Hooded Swan #3) * The Quintessence of August: A Romance of Possession * The Return o
f the Djinn and Other Black Melodramas * Rhapsody in Black (Hooded Swan #2) * Salome and Other Decadent Fantasies * Streaking: A Novel of Probability * Swan Song (Hooded Swan #6) * The Tree of Life and Other Tales of the Biotech Revolution * The Undead: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution * Valdemar’s Daughter: A Romance of Mesmerism * Wildeblood’s Empire (Daedalus Mission #3) * The World Beyond: A Sequel to S. Fowler Wright’s The World Below * Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction * Xeno’s Paradox: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution * Zombies Don’t Cry: A Tale of the Biotech Revolution