Brain World

means perfection, which is a goal that can never be achieved. As you approach, it recedes, and you have new achievements to strive toward.”

Her eyes went back to Dorn Horsten. “We have no personal servants, but, often, an outstanding scientist may have assistants, or an outstanding artist might have one or more apprentices. An outstanding writer might have someone to help him with his research. But none of these are really servants.”

Dinner over, Rosemary murmured something out over the table in her unknown language and the table center sank in, taking the soiled dishes away.

They headed back for the living room.

Dorn Horsten said, “What is that language you speak? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard it before.”

“I would imagine not, Doctor. I doubt if it is spoken anywhere except on Einstein. It’s a scientific language, largely a combination of Esperanto and Interlingua, though our own experts made deletions, or additions, of their own.”

Ronny said, “Look, let’s put this on a more informal basis. I can’t keep calling you nothing but Rosemary, while you call me Citizen Bronston, and Dorn, Doctor Horsten. What is your last name, by the way?”

“I have none. My name’s just Rosemary.”

Again the two men looked at her blankly.

Ronny said, “I meant your family name.”

“Yes, I know. But I have no family. My name’s Rosemary and my identification number is F-123-B-1495. That, of course, is for the data banks.”

“But you’ve got to have a family. Do you mean that you are an orphan?”

“There are no, well, orphans, on Einstein. Either that, or I suppose that you could say we’re all orphans. But there are no families.”

Ronny said plaintively, “You’ve got to have families. There’s always been the family.”

“No there hasn’t,” she told him. “Certainly not in the sense in which you’re speaking. I would imagine that for ninety percent of the history of the human race, the pairing family, such as you still know it on Earth and elsewhere in United Planets, was unknown. That is a man, a woman and their children, the children taking the man’s name upon birth. The extended family applied for most of man’s history.

Dorn Horsten said gently, “We seem to have drifted away from the fascinating point. You said that you have no families on Einstein any longer.”

Rosemary turned her impossibly blue eyes to him. “There’s no need for them. Property is no longer an issue. There is none. Parents are no longer involved in having their possessions descend to their offspring.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Ronny said. “I’ve been losing things all along in this conversation, that really took a wheel off however. What do you mean, there is no property? You were telling us a little while ago that everybody had it made on Einstein. That there was an abundance for everybody.”

“Of course,” she told him, nodding her head. “But there is no private property.”

Dorn Horsten said, thinking he got it, “You mean that you have established communism on Einstein?”

She sent her eyes over to the doctor and frowned her absolutely beautiful frown at him. “It’s an elastic term… Dorn,” she said. “If you mean the so-called communism first established by Lenin on Earth, and later extended to such planets as Stalin, then no.”

Ronny said, his voice irritated and demanding, “Then what do you mean no private ownership? You told us earlier that this was your house.”

“You misunderstood,” she told him. “It is mine in the sense that I occupy it. But it isn’t mine. Or anybody else’s. Who in the name of the Holy Ultimate would want to be tied down to a house?” She stated it as though that was the most reasonable position possible. But then she added, “Of course I own, I suppose you could say, my personal things; my toothbrush, my art objects, my favorite articles of clothing—the ones I don’t send down the disposal chutes every day. So does everybody else.”

Ronny closed his eyes momentarily. “To get back to this ‘no family’ thing. Suppose a man and woman want to live together?”

“Then they do, for as long as both want to. Any number of men and women who wish to live together can.”

“Wizard,” Ronny said triumphantly. “And suppose that they have a baby?”

“If the genetics computers okay it, they do.”

Ronny looked at her, but then shook his head. “We’ll get back to that later. You’ve got a man, a woman and a child. Isn’t that a family?”

“No. Any one of the three can leave at any time.” She added, “Children are no longer dependent on their parents.”

“You mean the state raises all children?”

“There is no state on Einstein. Children are the responsibility of society.”

“Then a couple of parents aren’t allowed to raise their own child?” Dorn said.

“Certainly they are, if the computers find that they are competent to do so. However, few people desire to. Children have always been a drag. In the past you were taught that it was your duty to raise your offspring, no matter how incompetent you might be to do so. You also supposedly loved them, whatever that means. Your early education in your home, your schools, your religious institutions, all taught that you must love and raise your children. It is no longer necessary to raise them, and we are somewhat sceptical about the meaning of love. It’s too elastic a term to make much sense.”

“Confound it,” Ronny said. “Who raises the kid?”

“People who are competent to do so, and who are particularly fond of children. There are always ample volunteers to go into that field of endeavor,” She came to her feet and said, “But I’m being a terrible hostess again. Dorn, I note that you have a taste for Italian food. Would you like a glass of Marsala as a nightcap? I can recommend it. And you, Ronald?”

They both accepted and she went off for it.

Ronny said to Dorn, “I’ve still got a good many questions, obviously, but it still sounds like a Utopia to me. Why in the hell do they want to join United Planets? What have we got to offer them?”

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Dorn Horsten said, his voice also low. “Don’t have to raise your children, eh? Sounds like a Utopia at that. I never have liked children. One of the reasons I’ve never gotten married. We have some rather prudish institutions on the planet of my birth.”

Rosemary returned with three glasses and a dark bottle and served them.

She smiled brightly and said, “Now then, where were we? We seem to go off on tangents. Before I can answer one of your questions, two more have popped up.”

Ronny said, “Rosemary, you mentioned the genetics computers, and later you mentioned that two people could raise their own child if the computers decided they were competent. Suppose the computers decided against them in one or the other case, or both. And suppose they wanted the child anyway and wanted to raise it, and the hell with the computers.”

Rosemary finished her wine and put down her glass before answering. She said, very seriously, “Genetics are our strongest raison d’etre. It is the reason Einstein was colonized. Anyone refusing to conform to our institutions pertaining to genetics is perfectly free to leave Einstein and seek what he desires on some other planet.”

She looked at her watch. “But you two must be tired. And you’re to have a full day tomorrow. Is bed in order?”

The two men stood. “I suppose that you’re right, my dear,” the doctor said. “And perhaps we should mull over some of the things that you have already told us. It’s all been fascinating.”

She stood too and smiled her dazzling bright smile and said, “Would either, or both of you, like me to sleep with you?”

Chapter Eight