Critical Threshold Read Online Free Page A

it again. I don’t think the matter belongs to the political marketplace at all. I think we should begin the space program again for reasons which go much deeper than that—because we need to become an interstellar community. The reason you and I don’t work on the same wavelength is that I’m committed and you’re just a professional doing a job, without even believing in it. Your idea of need isn’t the same as mine.”
    He let me run on and finish, and he even left a decent interval to make sure I was completely through.
    Then he said: “I was hired as a professional, to do a professional job. So were you. You aren’t here because you’re a committed man but because you’re good at your job. Pete Rolving and Karen Karelia are here because they can fly a starship as well as anyone else. Conrad Silvian and Linda Beck are here because, like you, they’re totally capable in handling their equipment and analyzing ecological problems. Nobody was hired for their ideals, Alex. It’s ridiculous to think that they should have been.”
    â€œMaybe so,” I said. I didn’t add anything else, just let it hang stubbornly.
    â€œYou may not think the political marketplace operates the right way,” he went on, “but it operates. It’s the place where things are decided, and in practical terms there is no other. It’s the only place where ideas—and principles, and needs, and moralities— can be bought and sold.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œBut you insist on making it difficult for yourself.”
    â€œIt is difficult,” I said. “That’s the way it is all right. But I can’t accept it and capitulate with it just because it exists. I can’t square it with my conscience. You can. You find it all too easy to adopt the stance that’s handed out to you by the status quo . Okay. That’s you. But it isn’t me and it never will be.”
    The atmosphere in the cabin seemed thick. Most of the tension was on my side. He was still relaxed. He didn’t hold it against me. Much.
    â€œI was screened by the UN,” I pointed out. “They selected me, warts and all.”
    â€œDon’t you think that you owe them something, then?” he said, with a casual cutting edge. “A duty to do your job without the emotional extras.”
    â€œIs that what we’re arguing about?” I asked. “Emotional extras?”
    â€œIf you like,” he replied
    It was no use reminding him that on Floria things had worked out fine. I hadn’t paid much attention to the instructions laid down for us, but it had worked out—in the end. But he wouldn’t concede that point. From his point of view, I’d done it all wrong, had been in the wrong. It’s like backing a winning horse against the form. No serious student of probability will ever admit you did the right thing even while he watches you count your money.
    â€œLook, Alex,” he said. “There’s no point working up a sweat. I came here to try and prevent this kind of thing happening on the ground. We may have differences, but let’s keep them in second place. The mission comes first.”
    â€œWhat do you want from me?” I said. “What do I have to promise?”
    â€œAll I ask,” he said, “is that when we land you take whatever situation we find as it comes. No judgments. No condemnations. Never mind who gets the credit or who gets the blame. Just do what we came to do, okay?”
    â€œIn a calm, detached, professional manner?”
    â€œIn a calm, detached, professional manner,” he echoed. He was dead serious.
    â€œThe way I work,” I said, “is to get involved. I don’t solve problems by clinical analysis and aloof meditation. I have to be in amongst them. Feeling them.”
    He didn’t sigh. He didn’t show any trace of annoyance. Maybe he’d expected it. In any case, it