because of the heat-retaining stratospheric haze, and the Earth vegetation and animal life were flourishing. In short, it was the kind of world his grandparents had insisted that Earth had been back in the good old days when there was room to breathe and air which was breathable.
But that had been nearly eight years ago, Martin thought as he stared into the blank red screen. The transfer of Earth’s population was virtually complete. Soon there would be nobody left but the people who, for personal or psychopathological reasons, were unsuitable for citizenship. There was nothing or nobody to hold him on Earth, and when he thought of the things he had heard and seen of the new world…
“I want to become a Citizen of the Federation,” he said in quiet desperation.
But he was all too aware of his palm on the sensor plate saying, not in words but in the electrochemical changes in his skin and the equally tiny variations in muscle tensions and pulse-rate, something different. Unlike his voice, those psychophysiological reactions were saying that all this was too good to be true, that there had to be a catch in it somewhere, and that there was something the minds behind the robot examiners were not telling him.
The words PASS THROUGH ON THE RIGHT AND USE THE UNMARKED DOOR appeared on the screen suddenly.
The door opened into a room in another building. Outside the window there was a vista of pine trees poking tike green spearheads through a blanket of sunlit, melting snow. He felt irritated because they still felt the need to impress him with their instantaneous transport system-had they never heard of the law of diminishing returns? But as he placed his hand on yet another sensor plate and looked beyond it his irritation changed abruptly to bitter disappointment.
Behind the examiner there was only one door, and it was unmarked.
QUESTIONS?
This time the word shone white on a field of icy blue, giving it an aura of cool, clinical detachment. But Martin did not feel anything at all like that.
“Am I being refused citizenship?” he asked angrily. “Am I an Undesirable? Am I wasting my time here?”
YOU ARE CURRENTLY A NON-CITIZEN. NOT AN UNDESIRABLE.
“What the blazes is the difference?”
THE STATUS OF NON-CITIZEN CAN BE A TEMPORARY CONDITION. UNDESIRABLES REMAIN SO.
Martin looked at the unmarked door again, remembering the girl candidate who had briefly shared an examiner with him before going… somewhere else. She had been told that the unmarked doors were for non- Citizens and that non-Citizens did as they were told. No matter what was decided in this room he would go through that door. There was no alternative, and suddenly he was frightened.
“I would like to return to my own locality,” he said as calmly as he could manage, “so that I can have more time to think.”
I STRONGLY ADVISE AGAINST IT.
He took his palm off the sensor plate and rubbed it against his thigh. He did not replace it.
YOUR CASE SHOULD BE DECIDED NOW.
The examiner, the room, and the view outside the window became very sharp and clear to him, as if he might be seeing them for the last time, and his mind was holding onto the present moment because very shortly something awful was going to happen. When he spoke his tone was too high-pitched and harsh, a stranger’s voice.
“What-what’s the hurry?”
NOTIFICATION OF PROCEDURAL CHANGE. UNTIL TOLD OTHERWISE YOU WILL ANSWER. NOT ASK. QUESTIONS. PLACE YOUR PALM ON THE SENSOR PLATE.
Martin swallowed and did as he was told. As soon as his hand touched the plate the questions began.
DO YOU WISH TO BECOME A CITIZEN OF THE FEDERATION OF GALACTIC SENTIENTS?
“Yes,” Martin said firmly.
SENSOR READING SUGGESTS RESERVATIONS, DO YOU WISH TO MOVE TO THE FEDERATION PLANET?
“Yes.”
YOUR ANSWER IS NOT FULLY SUPPORTED BY THE SENSOR. DO YOU NOT WISH TO LEAVE EARTH BECAUSE OF EXPECTED HOMESICKNESS, PATRIOTIC FEELINGS FOR YOUR BIRTHPLACE. OR OTHER EMOTIONAL REASONS?
“No!” Martin said vehemently. He was thinking of what the Earth had been even before the eight years of the Exodus had left it with little more than a skeleton crew of Undesirables and people tike himself who could not make up their minds or trust even themselves. Since his parents had died in a food riot twelve years ago, there had been nothing to hold him to any part of this sick and hopeless planet. He said again, “No.”
IS IT A MATTER OF TRUST?
“Yes.”
YOU ARE SUSPICIOUS OF OUR MOTIVES? DO YOU THINK WE ARE TELLING LIES?
“I’m-I’m not sure.”
BRIEFLY OUTLINE THE NATURE OF YOUR FEARS. SUSPICIONS. FEELINGS. OR GRIEVANCES REGARDING THE FEDERATION’S ACTIVITIES SINCE COMING TO YOUR PLANET.
Martin could not think of anything to say, but he knew that his palm on the sensor plate was saying far too much.
THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE MOST COMMON FEARS AND SUSPICIONS ENCOUNTERED DURING THE EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR CITIZENSHIP INDICATE VERBALLY THE ONE WHICH MOST CLOSELY APPROXIMATES YOUR CURRENT FEELINGS.
ONE: THE GALACTIC FEDERATION IS EVIL. INHERENTLY VICIOUS AND UTTERLY INIMICABLE TO MANKIND AND IS LULLING YOU INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY BY OFFERING THE EQUIVALENT OF HEAVEN ON THE NEW EARTH. WHERE YOUR RACE CAN BE EXTERMINATED PIECEMEAL WHILE BEING BEMUSED BY A COMPLEX AND TECHNOLOGY-SUPPORTED CONFIDENCE TRICK.
TWO: EARTH-PEOPLE ARE NOT DEMATERIALIZED AND TRANSPORTED TO THE NEW WORLD, THEY ARE RE MATERIALIZED WITHOUT PROTECTION IN SPACE WHERE THEY DIE.
