THIS IS COVERED IN DETAIL ON PAGES 7 THROUGH 18 OF THE BROCHURE.
“I know, I know,” Martin said, wondering why a mere device, no matter how sophisticated its design, should make him feel like taking a sledgehammer to it. Was the examiner merely a terminal of an advanced computer as the brochure said it was, or was he taking their word for that, just as the unquestioning, unsuspicious, ordinary, and successful candidates for citizenship had taken it? More calmly, he went on, “I fully realize that our solar system is very far removed spatially from the center of galactic science and culture and that, because of your advanced transportation systems, this separation is more important psychologically than physically. But surely if we were to remain on Earth, our contacts with other Federation cultures would be more gradual, and natural?”
REFER TO PAGES 21 THROUGH 25.
Perhaps there was not a multi-tentacled Federation Citizen controlling the examiner as Martin had begun to suspect. It was behaving like a computer now, one which had been programmed by a bunch of extraterrestrial bureaucrats.
“I have studied those pages closely,” Martin said patiently. “Earth is a very sick planet. Polluted, overpopulated, and denuded of natural resources to such an extent that in a few decades starvation and war will result in virtual genocide, according to your people. You are probably right. But why, with the incredibly high level of technology which you are so fond of demonstrating to us, don’t you simply cure our sick planet? Forcing our people into premature contact with alien cultures could be dangerous.”
DOES THE PROSPECT OF MEETING EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCES FRIGHTEN YOU?
The sensor plate was clammy against his palm. Give an honest answer, he reminded himself, because if you do not, then this damn thing, whether it is a device or a front for a Citizen examiner, would be aware of it.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Chapter 2
THE screen remained blank, projecting an angry red rectangle on which he expected the words of rejection to appear. Not only was his palm on the sensor plate sweating, but he could feel sweat beading his forehead and trickling down from his armpits. And still the screen remained blank.
He continued staring into it, and, because those events were so much on his mind, he began to form mental images on the blank red surface of the arrival of the stupendous Federation ships…
They had made no secret of their arrival. Upward of two hundred mighty vessels, ranging in size from three hundred yards to three miles in diameter, had taken up positions in synchronous orbit above the equator to hang like a blazing necklace of diamonds in Earth’s night sky. Within the hour, they had identified themselves and given the reason for their presence.
The people of Earth were being given the opportunity of becoming Citizens of the Federation of Galactic Sentients. Examination and induction centers would be set up forthwith, and it was expected that the majority of the planet’s inhabitants would pass these examinations and move to a world which had no pollution, power, population, or food supply problems, where there were no deserts or arctic wastes, and where every square mile of the new world’s land surface was or could be made fruitful. To cushion the shock of first contact and to avoid the initial, and natural, feelings of xenophobia all communication between the Federation people and Earth candidates for citizenship would be by printed word only.
The invitation had appeared at hourly intervals on every TV screen in the world, and there was no way, short of switching off the set, of blocking the message. And when the big, white cubes which were the twenty-story induction centers appeared on pieces of empty ground convenient to the most populous areas, they could not be stopped either.
Many of Earth’s most powerful governments and their armed forces tried very hard to stop them, but neither political argument nor military force had any effect. Armored columns, massed artillery, tactical nukes, and various other forms of frightfulness were tried and just did not work-the conventional weaponry malfunctioned and the nukes were teleported far, far away to be sealed in vast, subterranean caverns beyond the possibility of recovery by the limited technology of those remaining on Earth who might try to use them.
It was pointed out very firmly that the invitation to join the Federation was open to all responsible members of the Earth-human race, but it did not apply to certain of the world’s political systems or any of its military organizations.
It was also pointed out that trust between the various species which made up the Federation was important, and that the earlier an Earth-human was able to trust the Galactic emissaries, the greater were his or her chances of being accepted as a Citizen. However, it was natural for a newly contacted race to feel suspicious of the Federation’s motives and worried about their own reactions to the new world. To reassure these people, two-way travel would be permitted between Earth and the new world for a limited period, by observers nominated by the Earth’s population, so that they could be satisfied in every respect regarding the desirability of the move from Earth. After this period, for administrative and logistic reasons, travel would be one-way.
Except for the very small proportion of Undesirables and non-Citizens who would remain, it was intended to complete the evacuation of Earth in ten years…
“What happens to the people who are left?” Martin asked suddenly. But the screen remained blank except for the imagined images which came like the pictures seen in the flames of an old-time fire.
Many millions of Earth-people had passed the examinations and moved to the new world on trust, sight unseen-although to be fair, most of them came from areas where subsistence level conditions left them with very little to lose. Then there were the people who worried in case these first Citizens were not capable of looking after themselves, and they wanted to go along to organize things for them. The would-be organizers had a much harder time satisfying the examiners regarding their suitability for citizenship. They had to make it clear, by word and past deeds and sensor plate readings, that they were the type of person who had the ability and the need to care for other people, and not just the kind who wanted power.
Despite the early influx of the more simple and trusting Earth-people, the Federation saw to it that nobody went hungry or unsheltered. But for psychological reasons it wanted the new Citizens to become self-supporting as soon as possible-too much help from Federation technology could, at this early stage, set up an inferiority complex which might stunt future cultural and scientific development. So the appropriate public buildings, educational establishments, dwellings ranging from mud huts to skyscraper blocks, and whole factory complexes, were transferee! with the minimum of physical and emotional dislocation.
One of the first and most pleasant discoveries made by the new arrivals was that the flora and fauna of Earth had been transplanted many centuries earlier and required only cultivation and domestication. Apart from the bright, stratospheric haze in the otherwise cloudless sky and the thirty-five hour day, the new world was very much like home. There was no moon, and the only way to see the sun was from a space observatory, but Earth’s space hardware was not on the list for transfer.
It seemed that the human race was not to be given interstellar travel, matter transmitters, or other technological marvels of Federation science, but they would be given a little guidance in discovering these things for themselves. There was plenty of time, after all, and no pressure of any kind would be exerted on them. The Federation was deeply concerned that the Earth culture should not suffer from forced growth.
Surely, Martin thought angrily, these were the actions of a sensitive, altruistic, highly ethical group of entities. Why could he not accept what they were offering at face value? What stupid defect in his personality was making him uneasy?
Martin wiped his palm with a handkerchief. The screen remained lighted but blank. He put the hand back again.
He remembered how the early reports and then the Earth observers had come back, the former in an increasing flood and the latter in a reluctant trickle. It was a beautiful world, its climate semitropical throughout
