But the worth and the dignity and the rights of every individual are the values of my philosophy - and the cause I struggle for.
"You've heard the old bull that a benevolent despotism is the best possible government.
That must have been Mansfield's theory when he made the humanoids - but he made them benevolent enough and despotic enough to reduce it to a pretty uncomfortable absurdity.
"But I'm an equalitarian." He put the ingot down, with a crashing force.
"I want to modify the Prime Directive, to assure every man and woman the same rights that only Frank Ironsmith and a few other double-dealers now enjoy.
Even the freedom to do wrong."
He paused to fumble impatiently in a clutter of notes and drawings stacked under a white metal block, until he found an old envelope.
"Here's the change I want to build into that relay grid, to amend the Prime Directive." His booming voice read scrawled words from the back of the envelope. "But We the Humanoids Cannot Serve or Defend Any Man Except at His Own Command, or Restrain Any Man Against His Will, for Men Must Be Free."
"I'm with you!" Forester's shoulders lifted.
"What's to be done?"
"Everything." Replacing the tattered envelope under the ingot, the big man caught Forester's hand in a smashing grasp.
"I must warn you that we are attempting a nearly impossible task, with inadequate means, in defiance of such ruthless enemies as Ironsmith, in the face of hazards that even Overstreet can't quite foresee.
Until you were here, I had no real hope at all."
Forester inquired uneasily,
"What do you expect of me?"
"First, before we go into any future plans, you must know what we've already done.
I've told you that I helped old Mansfield for many years in his struggle to destroy his own unfortunate handiwork - and I think we really might have beaten the humanoids, if he hadn't been quite so blind to my abilities.
Because the job is going to take a combination of physical and paraphysical action.
"The changing of those relays, you see, is obviously a bit of physical engineering.
But Mansfield built the grid to protect itself from any meddling by engineers, and it does that very efficiently, as he and I discovered so often.
No man can now approach within three light-years of Wing IV - not by any physical means.
"But Jane Carter has been there."
Startled, Forester looked around for the child.
She had followed them about the cave at first, and now he expected to see her playing somewhere on the sand.
He couldn't find her.
"She's gone," White explained, "after palladium.
We need the metal to build those new relays, and Overstreet has discovered an alluvial deposit of it, out on a planet where men and humanoids have never been.
The nuggets are nearly pure, bearing only traces of rhodium and ruthenium."
"That little child!" Forester whispered blankly,
"You sent her to another world, alone?"
"A necessary risk." White's eyes flashed sternly.
"We've got to have palladium, but we reduce the danger as far as we can.
Overstreet watches, ready to warn her if Ironsmith or his peculiar allies turn up."
The big man swung back to the cluttered bench.
"She supplies the metal," he said. "Your job is to build and install the new relays.
Warren Mansfield could have done it, if he and I had ever got inside the defenses of Wing IV.
You'll have to take his place."
"You don't mean-" Forester caught his breath, shivering to the penetrating chill of the cavern. "You can't mean-"
"I do." White nodded deliberately.
"We'll give you all the help we can, but you're the rhodomagnetic engineer.
You're the one we must send to Wing IV, to change the mind of the humanoids."
Forester caught the rough edge of the workbench with cold awkward hands, and then he had to sit down on a wooden stool, to take the weight off his trembling knee.
He stared at the red- bearded giant, almost accusingly.
"You know I can't do teleportation."
"You'll learn," White rumbled grimly.
"You'll have to learn, if you ever want to see daylight.
Because there's a thousand feet of solid rock between us and the top of the ground, and no passage large enough for a man."
"But - I just can't-"
And Forester shivered, swallowing hard, struck mute by a sudden claustrophobia.
The damp air seemed too heavy and too still.