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Once we began to relax it was a pleasant journey. The roadbed was flat, the train swift. After an hour we knew that we were well clear of the city and all the enemy lurking there. The hay bales were broken open, the tired ex-girls, using their padded bras for pillows, slept. It was nearly dark when we made the first stop. Hampers of food and drink were loaded aboard and we were away within the minute. We ate, drank, and fell asleep once again. I awoke to the gentle touch of a soft hand on my shoulder. “We are here,” Neebe said. “I must awaken your friend,” Lights were moving by outside the open door as the train squealed to a stop. We climbed down and our bikes were handed after us. Followed by glad cries and shouts of farewell we mounted and followed Neebe down the high-
way, out of town, and to the family farm. The road was smooth and easy to see, A magnificent nebula haiffilled the sky and bathed us in a cool white light.
“Even if I could go back to Nevenkebia I never would,” Morton panted.
“You have family there. “
“I’ll miss them—but I won’t miss the draft, the army, the military, the intolerance…”
He gasped for air and I nodded agreement. “Understood. This planet has a lot going for it. Though I still don’t understand’all the permutations oflM it seems to be working. But all is not peace and light yet. Let us not forget Ze
Next morning it looked as though the entire family was standing around and beaming down upon us. While the ladies of the house fought to see how many eggs, wiffles and other gustatory goodies they could force upon us. We fought hottorably to do our best. Groaning we finally pushed away from the table while the audience went off to work on the farm.
“That was very good,” Morton said. “That was very wonderful,” I amplified.
“Both meals already deducted from your account,” Neebe smiled, handing me back my wirrdisc. “I added an order to transfer payment to Morton’s account when it is opened.”
“I love IM hospitality,” I said. “It is personal without being financial. I want to learn more about your world.”
“I will be happy to tell you anything you want to know,” she said with that sa,me endearing smile. What were these warm sensations that coursed through my body? I forgot them instantly as her smile faded. “But we will have to talk about it later. Right now I think you should see the TV. We recorded a broadcast made earlier this morning.” It had to be Ze
“We are mighty, we are invincible—and we will prevaill” Ze
“Firstly, I want every escaped deserter returned to this city. I will not inflict the death penalty but will– enlist them instead in penal, hard-labor battalions. I said that I was a merciful man.
“Secondly, I demand that all of the services of this city be restored, electricity and public utilities, and the food markets must be reopened. This will be done. I want to see people returning today, I want the normal life of this city to be as it was when we arrived, I want the deserters turned over to the military police. You will do this, and begin doing it now. ”
He paused dramatically, then pointed his finger directly at the camera.
“You will do it because in one day from now I will shoot ten of the prisoners. I will shoot these first ten no matter what you do, as an object lesson that I mean what I say. I will shoot ten of them the next day and, ten again the day after that if my orders are not obeyed. If my orders are obeyed the shooting will stop. But it will begin again whenever I feel that my desires are being thwarted.” That was it. That was all. And it certainly was enough. The screen went blank and I found myself staring at Morton with nothing at all to say.
“There are rare cases of insanity like that here,” Neebe said. “Gene changes not caught in prenatal examination. He is insane, isn’t he? These things that he says he will do—they are unpossible. He won’t, really have i
I was too ashamed of the human race to look at her, to answer her questions. Morton did; he was angry.
“Yes, he will, that is the worst part. I grew up with his land of people in charge ofmy life. Believe me, he will do it.”
“Then what can we do to stop him?”
“That is an almost unanswerable question,” I said. “You can’t force the deserters to undesert. Knowing IM you wouldn’t even think of asking them. And I don’t know what they will do voluntarily. If you had a government they could deal with Ze
“But we have to think about it,” Morton said, with a cold grimness I had never seen before. “Ze
“No!” Neebe said. “That is a hideous suggestion. This problem is so strange, so awful, that it would take the wisdom of Mark Forer itself to solve it.”
“Maybe, maybe,” I muttered. “But I feel that what is happening here is well beyond even the mighty capacities of that long-gone brain to solve.”
“Nothing was ever beyond Mark Forer,” she said with calm and unshakable belief. It angered me. It was like calling in the deity of your choice as you fell oS the cliff, begging for aid. Praying for a heavenly hand that would never, never swoop down from the sky to save you.
“That is just an opinion, your opinion. And to me it sounds more like blind faith than intelligent thought. We have to work this out ourselves because Mark Forer is long gone, rusted away. It can’t help us now.”
“Mark Forer could help us,” she said with calm unrea-
son. “But of course we could never ask. That is a basic tenet of IM. We must solve our problems for ourselves. Everything we need to know is in the writings that it gave us.”
“You are just jollying yourself along. You could ask, but you won’t. That is a way out. You can’t ask because it is not around to ask.”
“That is not true,” she said sweetly, smiling warmly upon my ill humor. “Mark Forer is in Bellegarrique, where it always has been.”