THE
K-FACTOR
By HARRY HARRISON
Speed never hurt anybody—it's the sudden stopat the end. It's not how much change that signalsdanger, but how fast it's changing....
Illustrated by Summers
E'RE losing a planet,Neel. I'm afraid that Ican't ... understandit."
The bald and wrinkledhead wobbled a bit on the thinneck, and his eyes were moist. Abravanelwas a very old man. Looking athim, Neel realized for the first timejust how old and close to death hewas. It was a profoundly shockingthought.
"Pardon me, sir," Neel broke in,"but is it possible? To lose a planet,I mean. If the readings are done correctly,and the k-factor equationsworked to the tenth decimal place,then it's really just a matter of adjustment,making the indicated corrections.After all, Societics is an exactscience—"
"Exact? Exact! Of course it's not!Have I taught you so little that youdare say that to me?" Anger animatedthe old man, driving theshadow of death back a step or two.
Neel hesitated, feeling his handsquiver ever so slightly, groping forthe right words. Societics was hisfaith, and his teacher, Abravanel, itsonly prophet. This man before him,carefully preserved by the age-retardingdrugs, was unique in the galaxy.A living anachronism, a refugee fromthe history books. Abravanel had singlehandedlyworked out the equations,spelled out his science ofSocietics. Then he had trained sevengenerations of students in its fundamentals.Hearing the article of hisfaith defamed by its creator produceda negative feedback loop in Neel sostrong his hands vibrated in tunewith it. It took a jarring effort tocrack out of the cycle.
"The laws that control Societics, aspostulated by ... you, are as exactas any others in the unified-field theoryuniverse."
"No they're not. And, if any manI taught believes that nonsense, I'mretiring tomorrow and dropping deadthe day after. My science—and it isreally not logical to call it a science—isbased on observation, experimentation,control groups and correctedobservations. And though wehave made observations in the millions,we are dealing in units in thebillions, and the interactions of theseunits are multiples of that. And letus never forget that our units are peoplewho, when they operate as individuals,do so in a completely differentmanner. So you cannot truthfullycall my theories exact. They fit thefacts well enough and produce resultsin practice, that has been empiricallyproven. So far. Some day, Iam sure, we will run across a culturethat doesn't fit my rules. At that timethe rules will have to be revised. Wemay have that situation now on Himmel.There's trouble cooking there."
"They have always had a high activitycount, sir," Neel put in hopefully.
"High yes, but always negative.Until now. Now it is slightly positiveand nothing we can do seems tochange it. That's why I've called youin. I want you to run a new basicsurvey, ignoring the old one still inoperation, to re-examine the checkpoints on our graphs. The troublemay lie there."
Neel thought before he answered,picking his words carefully. "Wouldn'tthat be a little ... unethical,sir? After all Hengly, who is operatorthere now, is a friend of mine. Goingbehind his back, you know."
"I know nothing of the sort."Abravanel snorted. "We are notplaying for poke