In the Council of Three, Arcot was officially invited to remain with
them. The fleet of molecular motion ships was nearing completion--the
first one was to roll off the assembly line the next day--but they
wanted Arcot, Wade, Morey, and Fuller to remain on Nansal.
"We have a large world here," the Scientist thought at them. "Thanks to
you people, we can at last call it our own. We offer you, in the name of
the people, your choice of any spot in this world. And we give
you--this!" The Scientist came forward. He had a disc-shaped plaque,
perhaps three inches in diameter, made of a deep ruby-red metal. In the
exact center was a green stone which seemed to shine of its own accord,
with a pale, clear, green light; it was transparent and highly
refractive. Around it, at the three points of a triangle, were three
similar, but smaller stones. Engraved lines ran from each of the stones
to the center, and other lines connected the outer three in a triangle.
The effect was as though one were looking down at the apex of a regular
tetrahedron.
There were characters in Nansalese at each point of the tetrahedron, and
other characters engraved in a circle around it.
Arcot turned it in his hand. On the back was a representation of the
Nansalian planetary system. The center was a pale yellow, highly-faceted
stone which represented the sun. Around this were the orbits of planets,
and each of the eleven planets was marked by a different colored stone.
The Scientist was holding in the palm of his hand another such disc,
slightly smaller. On it, there were three green stones, one slightly
larger than the others.
"This is my badge of office as Scientist of the Three. The stone marked
Science is here larger. Your plaque is new. Henceforth, it shall be the
Three and a Coordinator!
"Your vote shall outweigh all but a unanimous vote of the Three. To you,
this world is answerable, for you have saved our civilization. And when
you return, as you have promised, you shall be Coordinator of this
system!"
Arcot stood silent for a moment. This was a thing he had never thought
of. He was a scientist, and he knew that his ability was limited to that
field.
At last, he smiled and replied: "It is a great honor, and it is a great
work. But I can not spend my time here always; I must return to my own
planet. I can not be fairly in contact with you.
"Therefore, I will make my first move in office now, and suggest that
this plaque signify, not the Coordinator, and first power of your
country, but Counselor and first friend in all things in which I can
serve you.
"The tetrahedron you have chosen; so let it be. The apex is out of the
plane of the other points, and I am out of this galaxy. But there is a
relationship between the apex and the points of the base, and these
lines will exist forever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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