"The damned things are self-repairing. All I can do is stand by and watch, and fill out a report. Which is a ridiculous position for a man who considers himself an engineer." "Why don't you turn to some other field?" "No use. I've checked, and the rest of the engineers are in the same position I'm in, watching automatic processes which they don't understand. Name your field: food processing, automobile manufacture, construction, biochem., it's all the same. Either stand-by engineers or no engineers at all." "This is true for spaceflight also?" "Sure. No member of the spacepilot's union has been off Earth for close to fifty years. They wouldn't know how to operate a ship." "I see. All the ships are set for automatic." "Exactly. Permanently and irrevocably automatic." "What would happen if these ships ran into an unprecedented situation?" "That's hard to say. The ships can't think, you know; they simply follow pre-set programs. If the ships ran into a situation for which they were not programmed, they'd be paralyzed, at least temporarily. I think they have an optimum-choice selector which is supposed to take over unstructured situations; but it's never been tried out. At best, it would react sluggishly. At worst, it wouldn't work at all. And that would be fine by me." "Do you really mean that?" "I certainly do. I'm sick of standing around watching a machine do the same thing day after day. Most of the professional men I know feel the same way. We want to do something. Anything. Did you know that a hundred years ago human-piloted starships were exploring the planets of other solar systems?" "Yes." "Well, that's what we should be doing now. Moving outward, exploring, advancing. That's what we need." "I agree. But don't you think you're saying rather dangerous things?" "I know I am. But frankly, I just don't care any longer. Let them ship me to Omega if they want to. I'm doing no good here." "Then you've heard about Omega?" "Anyone connected with starships knows about Omega. Round trips between Omega and Earth, that's all our ships do. It's a terrible world. Personally, I put the blame on the clergy." "The clergy?" "Absolutely. Those sanctimonious fools with their endless drivel about the Church of the Spirit of Mankind Incarnate. It's enough to make a man wish for a little evil...." * * * * * (_Citizen Father Boeren, age 51, occupation clergyman. A stately, plum-shaped man wearing a saffron robe and white sandals._) "That's right, my son, I am the abbot of the local branch of the Church of the Spirit of Mankind Incarnate. Our church is the official and exclusive religious expression of the government of Earth. Our religion speaks for all the peoples of Earth. It is a composite of the best elements of all the former religions, both major and minor, skillfully blended into a single all-embracing faith."