Power does not produce wisdom,
but wisdom produces power.
It took the best of Olaf's dry humor and mental magic to help Wendy overcome her sadness that day when we left our boys behind us. The door, of course, remained open as I had promised, for them to join us. But mostly, our parting had a much more profound effect on me than it had on Wendy. Never throughout the entire mission had I felt so impelled to assist humanity in its struggle than I felt from this moment on when I was taught a lesson by our two boys. There wasn't an option left that allowed us to step away from this responsibility.
The boys' response gave me hope, a kind of hope that not the tallest of Olaf's wisdom could have overturned. I could feel it in my bones that my real job had just begun. Everything up to this point appeared to have been merely a preparation. Wendy agreed, and so did the others, except Olaf. I pressed Olaf hard for advice and assistance.
"Maybe I should take you to planet Monar Aquilae," Olaf answered in response to my incessant prodding. "What was that chap's name?" said Olaf, turning to Martin over lunch the next day.
"You mean the fat guy whom you had hired as counsel to help the Gribbork people save their civilization?"
Olaf nodded.
"Zaho!" said Werner Heisenberg.
"No, no, his name is Ziyanho," said Martin. "You'll be interested in this story," he said to Wendy.
"Ziyanho is the foremost authority in the universe on the life cycle of civilizations," Olaf explained. He grinned as he said it.
Somehow the grin didn't fit the seriousness of the matter. "Do you know him well?" I asked Olaf.
"All too well," Olaf replied. "He is a very fine scholar, originally from India." Olaf said they had both studied in Oxford together, but had never actually met there. "We met him in Oslo for the first time, long before the Gribbork project came about," he said.
He had me wonder now. He had never mentioned a Gribbork project before.
"We should pay him a visit," Martin suggested.
Olaf nodded.
As it was, we didn't leave right away. We stopped for a holiday on the way, visiting the Steam Ocean, as Bohr called the hot-water ocean that had become his favorite resort on planet 'O'.
It wasn't until a week later that we traveled to Monar Aquilae where Ziyanho had last made his home. Olaf was certain that we could still find him there. We went to the great city above the swamp where the two men had spent much time together. Olaf still knew a few people by name and started asking questions about Ziyanho's whereabouts.
The city itself was an enormous steel structure that resembled a cube standing on edge, rising out of the swamp of sweet smelling swamp plants that were covered with red and yellow blossoms in the shape of orchids. We were told Ziyanho might be at the debating center that Olaf said, he and Ziyanho had set up for the Gribbork project. It was a place where people of all ages, sex, or profession stood up and voiced their opinions to whoever would listen. "We usually found many assembled. Ziyanho had practically lived at this place," Olaf recalled.
As it was, Ziyanho wasn't there. This time we were told we might find him below in the swamp and some distance from the city where the swamp had been converted into a health center mud bath complex.
Olaf shook his head when we entered the park-like compound dotted with hot mineral pools. Some of the hot pools contained homogenized mineral-rich mud.
Ziyanho recognized Olaf immediately. "Hey buddy!" he shouted out from one of the mud holes, "What brings you to Monar Aquilae?"
