"I know it's inconsiderate of me to talk of it," Florin said, "but don't you feel resentment against the men who killed your father?"
She shook her head and said, "I can't feel resentment, I know that it was just circumstances. Those men felt justified in what they did—and maybe they were."
"How can you be so cold-blooded?" he said half-angrily. "Killing is never justified, and ignorance and violence against intelligent and kindly men are the supreme injustice."
"Why bother discussing the right and wrong of it," she said wearily. "It is all over with, all so meaningless—and easily forgotten."
"That's just it," Florin said earnestly. "You've got to think about it, decide who was right and who was wrong. You've got to decide so that you can base your future actions and attitudes on that. You can't just mark it off the books, for it will still be in your head, all jumbled emotion and no sense."
He was trying desperately to bring her out of apathy. He knew that the incident and all of its contributing factors must be clinically analyzed, for both their sakes.
Again she shook her head. "No, they were right, they were betrayed. Some of those people had their life's saving of luxury pay invested in the corporation-men, and when those men failed them, they lost their savings and their futures. Poverty is a treacherous catalyst, it makes men do weird and horrible things. Common tricks of psychology added to that, make the whole mess into a primitive society of revenge and hatred."
Florin saw he had her on the right track, but ran his hand through his hair in bewilderment as he asked, "But why? We can see the result, but nobody is willing to tell the cause. I've got to know."
She looked at him, barely discernable in the dark cabin, then said, "Why are you so interested? Why did you help us?"
"I told you. I was a student of Tomlin, and a believer in the principles of this planet. I saw it produce a society where intelligence and virtue were manifest—whether for mercenary or other reasons is inconsequential. It worked, and it made a wonderful world. I wanted to do my part in that world—my world.