th a grim smile. "I don't know how much of
an answer we'll find, but I know _that_ won't be it!"

"Let's say a small celebration feed for the whole crew when Superman is
completed. Nothing chintzy, either!"

They shook on it. And afterward Paul was glad the incident had occurred.
It left no doubt about the direction Nat Holt would be traveling in his
work.

* * * * *

Four weeks to the day, from the time Paul had stepped into Oglethorpe's
office, he called the first meeting of his staff leaders. Invitations to
the General and to Nat Holt were deliberately omitted. He wanted this
first get together to be a family affair.

He felt just a little shaky in the knees as he got up before that group
for the first time.

"I won't repeat what you already know," Paul said carefully. "You all
know the background events that produced Project Superman.

"I am sure that each of you has also caught the two basic errors that
have been assumed by the Space Command, first, that an errorless man is
possible, and second, that genuine scientific discovery can be secured
wholly upon command. General Oglethorpe recognizes that we consider
these assumptions erroneous, but he also knows that our professional
integrity demands that we pursue vigorously a course which he believes
will result in success.

"We recognize, too, that we are not here to invent or produce anything
that does not already exist. But, in a sense, our superiors and some of
our co-workers expect us to do exactly that.

"We can agree, however, that most of Man's potential still remains to be
discovered. And for us, who have hoped for a means of understanding that
potential, this Project is the fulfillment of dreams. If we fail to take
full advantage of it, we will win the condemnation of our profession for
a century to come.

"Space Command has already concluded that a man can be stripped of his
humanity and driven to an utterly mechanistic state with the robotic
responses of a machine. Let there be no mistake about it: we have been
brought here to validate that conclusion.

"We will validate it by default, so to speak, unless we can produce a
clean-cut analysis and demonstrations of the thing that most of us
believe: that the essence of Man is more than a piece of machinery or a
collection of bio-chemical reactions.

"Our science of mind and Man is on trial. If we fail, we give consent to
a doctrine that will spread from space tech