His mind swam; this was not what he had expected.  The god leader Kor had always aided his people in their sciences; in the knowledge word offerings they reported to the Eye the results of their studies, and often, if asked properly, the god leader would clarify uncertainties which they faced.  But now he ordered an ending to research quests.  This was unthinkable!  Knowledge was godhood; godhood was knowledge, of the essence; the essence was knowing understanding.  To him, to his people, it was a unity—­and now that unity repudiated itself.  Faintly in the darkness somewhere he again heard screaming.

“Are we to abandon all progress?  Are the stars so dangerous?”

The concept wish of progress must die within your people.  There must be no purpose in any field of knowledge.  You must remain motionless, consolidate what you have, and live in peace. The Eye in the dimness seemed larger and brighter the longer he looked at it; all else in the echoing room was darkness. The stars are not dangerous, but there is a race which rises with you, and it rises more rapidly.  Should you expand into the stars you will only meet that race sooner, and they will be stronger.  They are more warlike than your people; already you are capable of peace, and that must be your aim.  Remain on your world; consolidate; cultivate the fruits of your civilization as it is, but do not go forward.  In that way, you will have five thousand years before that race finds you, and if you are no threat to them they will not destroy you.

He felt a rising anger in him as the god leader’s words came to him in the dark room, and a fear that lay deeper.  He was a warrior, and a quester ... how could he give up all such pursuits, and how could he be expected to force all his people to do the same?  There would be no hope wish of advance, no curiosity ... no purpose.

“Is this other race so much more advanced than we are?” he asked.

He heard a low humming from the altar and the Eye grew brighter again. They are not so much ahead of you now ... but they are more warlike, and will therefore develop more quickly.  In both your races, war is a quest which you use as a release for what is in you.  Your sciences questings and your wars are the same thing ... you must suppress both.  They are discontentment, and you will find that only in peace, if at all.

He dipped his head to one side, a gesture of acquiescence or agreement.  He couldn’t argue with the god leader Kor, and he had been wrong even to think of it.

“How am I to suppress the race?  Is it possible to convince each of them of the necessity for abandoning forgetting all questing?”

The Eye hummed, and grew brighter against the darkness of the carved wall behind it, but it was some time before Kor spoke again. It would be impossible to convince every one.  The reasons must be kept from them, and kept from the shared memories; you must not communicate my knowledge words in any way.  Consolidate your power, force peace upon them and lead them into acceptance.  The knowledge questing can be made to die within them.  Remember that there will be no purpose ... in that they must find contentment.