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close to what he had been worrying about within the past hour, the notion that someone would ultimately look at his work and see through it – but he overcame the impulse. Not a quaver showed in his voice as he answered, ‘I am always glad when somebody reads and recalls my poetry, in whatever version. But do you not concede I have a valid point?’
    ‘I suppose I have to.’ Satamori heaved a deep sigh. ‘I do believe it was the – the continuity of our beliefs which carried us through the terrible period after the Blowup; I do believe that if we hadn’t had our respective faiths to use for crutches, we might never have risen again, even as far as we have done today.’
    ‘On the other hand,’ Mustapha said, ‘it was because we held to the beliefs that we did, that we reached the point of striking out insanely in all directions, with some of our most terrible weapons. The Blowup is now two generations in the past, but it has left so deep a scar on the collective psyche of mankind that we will go to any lengths to avoid a repetition. For an intelligent young person today, it is more significant that we suffered a population crash corresponding with incredible precision to the example set by rabbits infected with myxomatosis, or lemmings, or indeed any species that has exceeded the ability of its environment to support it – think of coral and the crown-of-thorns starfish if you like! – it’s more significant, as I was about to say, that we have thus been shown subject to natural laws than that idealistic dreamers in ancient times conceived of man as being superior to his animal cousins. Moreover, so many of us died. As we re-open the contaminated areas of the planet, we find we are walking through a giant graveyard. It is almost literally impossible to ignore the presence of our forebears’ dead bodies.’
    ‘You always had a sweet tongue, Mustapha,’ Satamori said. ‘Today you are excelling yourself; you’ve touched meon a very raw spot, too. Half of me knows, in my head, that one must fight the superstitious fear of death, or we shall forever be shut off from vast tracts of what are now again becoming habitable land – and we need that space, precisely because we did suffer a typical population crash. The other half of me stands in irrational awe of our ancestors, as though they had indeed become ghosts, or spirits, or whatever you call them, and ought not to be disturbed.’
    He set aside his coffee-cup, now empty, and declined Ali’s solicitous offer of a refill.
    ‘On the other hand, by inventing the privateer Chaim did free us from that terrifying abolition of privacy which was so alarming to us we stopped at nothing to – But I said that to you before, and didn’t convince you.’
    ‘Nothing, I’m afraid, will convince me that applying the same principles which led to our near-suicide can rescue us from our remaining troubles,’ Mustapha said in a tone of regret. ‘I wish I could believe that. It would make life simpler, wouldn’t it? But in fact I’m certain that only a complete re-assessment of our place on the planet, our relationship to other life-forms, in sum an abdication of our arrogance, will enable us to escape another, and another, and maybe another absolutely final, disaster similar to the Blowup. Skeptic though I am, I regard the teachings of the Way of Life as likely to encourage a proper humility in us, the sort of attitude that alone can permit us to survive.’
    He gathered the skirts of his gown and rose.
    ‘So I shall not attend Chaim’s treasure-hunt party, even by direct invitation. I have no wish to see another generation of managers, bureaucrats and administrators wrap this species of ours in their steel-wire web of inflexible rules and regulations. I don’t want to be party to the perpetuation of a system which condemned to death two-thirds of humanity. Better to expire of plague, starvation or cold than to be killed by the voluntary act of another man!’
    ‘In