"Long ago we became interested when tourists told us about the curious block-buildings on Vinin. Our physics boys worked out an ingenious device for analyzing their atmosphere. It was a little machine concealed in the lining of an ordinary air-freight crate, as I recall. * * * * * "A machine is quite objective, Edward--and Customs men don't stamp freight crates with the negative adaptors. When we learned that a Vininese fleet was going to land here we simply issued insulating helmets to all our people and let them come. As soon as we destroyed their portable transmitters the Vininese army proved quite adaptable to a new environment." "Then--I did nothing to help when I destroyed their fleet?" "Unfortunately you wounded two of our mechanics." "I'm a traitor, Dr. Kramer. Even when I try I can't redeem myself!" "Only on Vinin can you betray an external absolute, Edward. To an Agronian all objective concepts are relative to the subjective interpretations made by each individual. You can only be a traitor to yourself." "The words are pleasant to say to a sick man but the fact remains--I would have betrayed Agron." "But you didn't. Why not?" "When I saw what their efficiency really meant--" "You changed your mind before you knew about the transmitters?" "Yes." "Then you're libeling yourself. Don't trap yourself in another self-delusion, Edward. All that's happened is that you've grown up." Dirrul said slowly, feeling for words that would express the idea as he felt it, "When I was in the center of the galaxy, looking out on space, I almost grasped a new concept but I lost it when the Agronian patrol attacked me. It's coming back. "Time and space seem to be one and the same. Neither exists as an objective reality. There is no past and no future--all of it occurs eternally in the instant of my own being. I am everything and nothing--infinity and a speck lost in space." "Thus you discover the Rational Potential," Dr. Kramer smiled. "I think you're ready for the space-pilot promotional, Edward." After a pause Dr. Kramer inquired, "Did you see the Chief of Vinin, Edward?" "Then you know about that too?" "I've guessed--it seems likely." "I scraped off the putty and the face color. Beneath it he was an Earthman. A hundred thousand of them rule the Confederacy." "All time and space, forever occurring for each of us in the instant of now! Yes, he would be an Earthman, Edward--quite logically. Both good and evil begin with the same source. Both have the same Rational Potential. The act of being has always been the same struggle of constant forces, between the absolute and the relative. The time never changes nor the event but merely the passing illusion of place." Shaking his head the chubby professor departed. Dirrul closed his eyes, at peace with himself. * * * * * End of Project Gutenberg's The Instant of Now, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.