James White - Federation World

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.

THREE: THE EARTH-PEOPLE ARE USED SIMPLY AS FOOD FOR THE FRIGHTFUL AND INSATIABLY HUNGRY POPULATION OF THE FEDERATION.

FOUR: THE FEDERATION IS A FIGMENT OF THE IMAGINATION OF AN ALIEN RACE. SO VISUALLY HORRIFYING AND REPELLANT THAT IT COMMUNICATES THROUGH DEVICES LIKE THE EXAMINERS WHICH SUBTLY CONTROL THE MINDS OF THE CANDIDATES SO THAT THEY BELIEVE EVERYTHING THEY SEE AND HEAR.

FIVE: THE FEDERATION IS SO ADVANCED IN THE NONPHYSICAL SCIENCES THAT THE PICTURES AND OTHER EVIDENCE OF THE NEW WORLD, THE VAST FLEET OF SHIPS IN SYNCHRONOUS ORBIT, THE RADAR AND VISUAL IMAGES, AND THE REPORTS OF VISITORS TO THE NEW WORLD ARE THE RESULT OF DIRECT MENTAL CONTROL AND NONE OF IT HAS ANY PHYSICAL ACTUALITY.

SIX: YOUR PEOPLE ARE NOT BEING TRANSPORTED ANYWHERE BUT ARE DYING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOORS MARKED WITH THE FEDERATION SYMBOL.

SEVEN: WE ARE SO COMPLETELY ALIEN AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE TO YOU THAT YOU COULD NOT EVEN CONCEIVE OF THE KIND OF PURPOSES FOR WHICH YOU WILL BE USED OR THE-

“But you understand us!” Martin broke in. “Surely understanding between intelligent races is a two-way process. That is a ridiculous suggestion.”

THE SENSOR REGISTERS AN OVERREACT10N TO FEELINGS OF DOUBT AND INFERIORITY. UNDERSTANDABLE. ARE THE OTHER SUGGESTIONS RIDICULOUS?

“Yes.”

BUT?

“Some of them are, well, worrying. The people who are being accepted for citizenship, while they are in many cases good, responsible, and sometimes highly intelligent people, are not the type who will make trouble if things aren’t what they expected. You’re taking away the sheep and…”

THE SHEPHERDS.

“… leaving the wolves on Earth. What right have you to do this to us?”

THE RIGHT OF A RESCUER TO SAVE A BEING INTENT ON COMMITTING SUICIDE. A BASIC QUESTION. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT WE MEAN YOU HARM?

“No.”

SENSOR INDICATES PARTIAL UNTRUTH.

“Not intentionally.”

EXPLAIN.

“You don’t intend to harm us,” Martin said firmly, “either as individuals or as a race. We would be hopelessly paranoid not to believe that you are trying to help us, even though your reasons for evacuating Earth seem a bit high-handed and, considering the resources available to you, not wholly convincing.

“As well,” he went on, “the brochure tells us that the Undesirables and non-Citizens who remain here will not suffer physical hardship unless they cause it themselves, but that the Earth will not be a pleasant place for them. On the other hand, the new planet will be a very pleasant place. So much so that there will be little for the Citizens to do for physical and mental exercise. They won’t even be able to run away from the wolves. In spite of the brochure’s reassurances, they may be opting for a cultural dead end, a world on which they will do as they like and risk degeneration and death as a species. Whereas on Earth you say that Undesirables and non-Citizens have to obey instructions. I wonder if they aren’t the lucky ones.”

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE IRRESPONSIBLE AND UNDESIRABLE ELEMENT ARE SIMPLE. THEY WILL NOT CAUSE PHYSICAL OR MENTAL HARM TO NON-CITIZENS REMAINING PERMANENTLY OR TEMPORARILY ON EARTH. THIS INSTRUCTION WILL BE ENFORCED NON-VIOLENTLY UNTIL THE POST-EXODUS SITUATION STABILIZES ITSELF. NON-CITIZENS, DEPENDING ON THEIR ABILITIES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES, WILL RECEIVE MORE COMPLEX INSTRUCTIONS. INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPONSIBLE NON-CITIZENS WILL NOT BE ENFORCED.

Earth would not be a pleasant place, Martin thought, but it would not be actively unpleasant if the responsible non-Citizens did as they were told. And the examiner seemed to be suggesting that they would do as they were told willingly because they would realize that it was for their own good. Whereas on the new world…