Free To Ride Pegasus by Anne McCaffrey Page A

specialists, trained in one area of a varied profession and entitled to professional immunity in that area
if
they are licensed and registered with the Centers.
Don’t
,” and the hand went up again as Daffyd tried to interrupt, “tell them you’re experimenting to find out how to broaden every Talented mind.
Don’t
ask for the whole piece of bread with jam on it, Dave! You won’t get it, but you will get protection for your people in the practice of their speciality, even your precogs, I’ll bear down heavily on the scientific corroboration of authentic foresights,” and Andres began to pace a tight rectangle in front of op Owen’s desk, his dark head down, his gestures incisive, “the use of computers to correlate details and estimate reliablity of data, the fact that sometimes three and four precogs come up with the same incident, seen from different angles. And most importantly—that the Center never issues an official warning unless the computer agrees that sufficient data coincides between Incident and reality …”
    “Please emphasize that we admit to human fallibility and use computers to limit
human
error.”
    Joel frowned at op Owen’s droll interjection. “Then I’ll show how the foresight prevented or averted the worst of the incidents. That Monterey Quake is a heaven-sent example. No heroes perished, even if a few sparrows did fall from gas discharges.”
    “I thought it was the meddling with the sparrow’s fall that perturbs Senator Zeusman” Daffyd remarked wryly. “For want of that seed, the grain won’t sprout …”
    “Hmmm, yes, it does! ‘What will be, will be,’ ” and Andres mimicked Zeusman’s voice again.
    “Since he initiated Pope,” said op Owen, “I’d reply ‘Whatever is, is right.’ ”
    “You want me to turn Papist now, huh?” Joel grinned wickedly.
    Daffyd chuckled as he continued, “Pope also advises, ‘Be candid where we can but vindicate the ways of God to man!’ ”
    The gently delivered quote had an instant effect on the senator, comparable to touching a match to a one-second fuse. Midway to explosion, Andres snapped his mouth shut, sighed extravagantly and rolled his slightly yellowed eyes heavenwards.
    “You are the most difficult man to help, Daffyd op Owen!”
    “That’s only because I’m aware how carefully we must move in the promulgation of this Bill, Joel. I don’t want it backfiring at the wrong time, when some of the basic research now in progress becomes demonstrable. The Talents can’t be hamstrung by obsolete statutes imperfectly realized on a scrabbling compromise basis.”
    “Dave, you want to run before you can walk?”
    “No, but trouble has been foreseen.”
    “Darrow again, huh? Or are you hoist on your own petard?” Joel waggled a finger triumphantly. “Trouble stemming from current non-protection. Go cast up a precog
after
the Bill is passed.”
    “Ah-ha” and Daffyd mimicked Joel now, “but we don’t see the Bill passing!”
    That rendered Andres speechless.
    “And we are hoist on our own petard,” the telepath continued with a hint of sorrowful resignation in his voice, “because all our preventive methods
are
affecting the future, unfortunately, much as Senator Zeusman presented the syndrome in his Sparrow’s Fall peroration. That was such a masterful speech,” op Owen said with rueful envy. “Valid, too, for as surely as the Center issues a warning, allowing people a chance to avert or prevent tragedy, they have already prejudiced the events from happening as they were foreseen. That’s the paradox. Yet how,
how
can an ethical man stand aside and let a hero perish, or even a sparrow fall, when he
knows
that he can prevent unnecessary or premature loss.”
    “The Monterey Quake could
not
have been prevented,” Joel reminded him, then blinked in amazement. “You’re not holding out on
me
, are you? You haven’t found a kinetic strong enough to hold the earth’s surface together?”
    Dave’s laughter