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is a social solution to the situation.
 I see, I said.  This morning Ian talked about Amanda saying that there
always was a solution, but the problem here was to find it in so short a time.
Did I hear that correctly that there s always a solution to a tangle like
this?
 There s always any number of solutions, Padma said.  The problem is to find
the one you d prefer or
maybe just the one you d accept. Human situations, being human-made, are
always mutable at human hands, if you can get to them with the proper
pressures before they happen. Once they happen, of course, they become
history 
He smiled at me.
  And history, so far at least, is something we aren t able to change. But
changing what s about to happen simply requires getting to the base of the
forces involved in time, with the right sort of pressures ex-erted in the
right directions. What takes time is identi-fying the forces, finding what
pressures are possible and where to apply them.
 And we don t have time.
His smile went.
 No. In fact, you don t.
I looked squarely at him.
 In that case, shouldn t you be thinking of leaving, yourself? I said.
 According to what I gather about these Naharese, once they overrun this
place, they re liable to kill anyone they come across here. Aren t you too
valuable to Mara to get your throat cut by some battle-drunk soldier?
 I d like to think so, he said.  But you see, from our point of view, what s
happening here has im-portances that go entirely beyond the local, or even the
planetary situation. Ontogenetics identifies certain in-dividuals as possibly
being particularly influential on the history of their time. Ontogenetics, of
course, can be wrong it s been wrong before this. But we think the value of
studying such people as closely as possible at certain times is important
enough to take priority over everything else.
 Historically influential? Do you mean William? I said.  Who else not the
Conde? Someone in the revo-lutionary camp?
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Padma shook his head.
 If we tagged certain individuals publicly as being influential men and women
of their historic time, we would only prejudice their actions and the actions
of the people who knew them and muddle our own con-clusions about them even if
we could be sure that ontogenetics had read their importance rightly; and we
can t be sure.
 You don t get out of it that easily, I said.  The fact you re physically
here probably means that the individuals you re watching are right here in
Gebel
Nahar. I can t believe it s the Conde. His day is over, no matter how things
go. That leaves the rest of us. Michael s a possibility, but he s deliberately
chosen to bury himself. I know I m not someone to shape his-tory. Amanda?
Kensie and Ian?
He looked at me a little sadly.
 All of you, one way or another, have a hand in shaping history. But who
shapes it largely, and who only a little is something I can t tell you. As I
say, ontogenetics isn t that sure. As to whom I may be watching, I watch
everyone.
It was a gentle, but impenetrable, shield he opposed me with. I let the
matter go. I glanced out the window, but there was no sign of Ian.
 Maybe you can explain how Amanda, or you go about looking for a solution, I
said.
 As I said, it s a matter of looking for the base of the existing forces at
work 
 The ranchers and William?
He nodded.
 Particularly William since he s the prime mover. To get the results he
wants, William or anyone else has to set up a structure of cause and effect,
operating through individuals. So, for anyone else to control the forces
already set to work, and bend them to different results, it s necessary to
find where William s structure is vulnerable to cross-pressures and arrange
for those to operate again through individuals.
 And Amanda hasn t found a weak point yet?
 Of course she has. Several. He frowned at me, but with a touch of humor.  I
don t have any objection to telling you all this. You don t need to draw me
with leading questions.
 Sorry, I said.
 It s all right. As I say, she s already found several. But none that can be
implemented between now and sometime tomorrow, if the regiments attack Gebel
Nahar then.
I had a strange sensation. As if a gate was slowly but inexorably being
closed in my face.
 It seems to me, I said,  the easiest thing to change would be the position
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of the Conde. If he d just agree to come to terms with the regiments, the
whole thing would collapse.
 Obvious solutions are usually not the easiest, Padma said.  Stop and think.
Why do you suppose the Conde would never change his mind?
 He s a Naharese, I said.  More than that, he s honestly an hispanic. El
honor forbids that he yield an inch to soldiers who were supposedly loyal to
him and now are threatening to destroy him and everything he stands for.
 But tell me, said Padma, watching me.  Even if el honor was satisfied,
would he want to treat with the rebels?
I shook my head.
 No, I said. It was something I had recognized before this, but only with
the back of my head. As I spoke to Padma now, it was like something emerging
from the shadows to stand in the full light of day.  This is the great moment
of his life. This is the chance for him to substantiate that paper title of
his, to make it real. This way he can prove to himself he is a real
aristocrat. He d give his life in fact, he can hard-ly wait to give his
life to win that.
There was a little silence.
 So you see, said Padma.  Go on, then. What oth-er ways do you see a
solution being found?
 Ian and Kensie could void the contract and make the penalty payment. But
they won t. Aside from the fact that no responsible officer from our world
would risk giving the Dorsai the sort of bad name that could give, under these
special circumstances, neither of those two brothers would abandon the Conde
as long as he insisted on fighting. It s as impossible for a Dorsai to do that
as it is for the Conde to play games with el honor. Like him, their whole life
has been ori-ented against any such thing.
 What other ways?
 I can t think of any, I said.  I m out of sugges-
tions which is probably why I was never considered for anything like Amanda s
job, in the first place.
 As a matter of fact, there are a number of other possible solutions, Padma
said. His voice was soft, almost pedantic.  There s the possibility of
bringing counter economic pressure upon William but there s no time for that.
There s also the possibility of bring-ing social and economic pressure upon
the ranchers; and there s the possibility of disrupting the control of the
revolutionaries who ve come in from outside Nahar to run this rebellion. In
each case, none of these solu-tions are of the kind that can very easily be
made to work in the short time we ve got.
 In fact, there isn t any such thing as a solution that ran be made to work
in time, isn t that right? I said, bluntly.
He shook his head. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]