Page:Fantastic Universe (1956-10; vol. 8, no. 3).djvu/34

Rh ponderous body slowly on the bed and recognized George. A wave of tremor shook him.

"Sleth—" George said softly. "I'm going to be here just a minute and then I'm going. I came to say just one thing. You can get well as soon as you want to. You're sick because you haven't made a decision. Make one and get well, Sleth.

"You can decide that everything I told you was a lie, and go back home and forget about it. You'll be well very soon. Or you can admit whatever truth you found in the things I said—and make the necessary changes. That'll make you sick for quite a while maybe, but you'll get over it eventually. An individual's way of life is a manifestation of his physical structure. Change one and you always have to change the other. It's invariably a painful process.

"Make up your mind. Either way. A calculating machine can't function when it's trying to give two answers to the same question. Neither can a human brain—or a Ragalian one. Reach a decision. Then get well. I'll be back later, Sleth."

He paused at the lock door for a moment. The Ragalian was looking at him with searching eye-stalks. The tremors had ceased. "You friend," he said. "Come back—"

George took a deep breath. "Yeah—I'll be back."

Hugh refused to believe there was any chance now. He had already ordered production lines stopped and was making an attempt to liquidate stocks and supplies on hand in the hope of being able to save the yard.

But that same afternoon George was called back to the hospital. Sleth Forander insisted on seeing him again.

"I decide," the Ragalian said as soon as he was in the room again. "Decision to be Ragalian; bury head. Or be like Earthman; go forward, head up. Decide go forward; let rocks come."

George couldn't restrain the kind of choked feeling he felt at the base of his throat. "That's a good decision Sleth," he said. "You won't regret it. What about your people?"

"Admire Earthmen. Want forward motion like Earthmen. Tell them only way is face to stars. They angry. Have to believe. Tired being backward Ragalian."

"You'll take the ships the way we've built them, then?"

"Take ships. Ragalian go to stars. Head up. Like Earthmen!"

They let him go from the hospital. There was nothing to keep him there, since his physical reactions had vanished with the making of his decision.

George knew he hadn't told half of it. Going back home and trying to sell his people on the Earth-type ships would be no easy task. He felt a momentary guilt over what