Andre Norton - The Science Fiction anthology

“Midplanet: Second planet out. Temperate climate. Farming, fur-trapping, slight manufacturing. Ratio 7 to 1, all somatypes and admixtures.”

“Newman’s body, last planet out from the system sun....”

He finished the list and gave them five minutes to decide. The names of the three planets appeared on the floor in glowing letters. When they had made up their minds, they were to go and stand on the name.

They held a short conference.

“It looks like it’s a tossup between fish and furs,” Ruby said. “I think I’ll take Midplanet. I like furs better than fish.”

They argued a moment longer, then picked up their belongings and went and stood on the luminous letters.

VII

No doubt of it, the carpet made a fairly suitable green, Escher thought. He placed the ball firmly on the nap, stepped back a pace, and tapped it smartly with the golf club. It rolled in a beautifully straight path into the upturned water glass.

“Very nice shot, Claude.”

Escher looked up and leaned the club against the side of the desk.

“I thought so, too,” he agreed. “What brings you here, Mac?”

MacDonald sat down and poured himself a glass of water from the beaker on Escher’s desk.

“Just wanted to pass on the compliments of the Board for the recent large upswing in woman emigrants to the colony planets.”

Escher casually waved it aside.

“It wasn’t much. We just had to rid ourselves of some old-fashioned notions, that’s all. I was afraid, though, that the Board might disapprove of our methods.”

MacDonald thought for a moment.

“No, I guess they didn’t. I can’t recall any members of the Board complaining about it, at least. Apparently they felt that something drastic was needed. Or, more probably, they’ve kept themselves carefully ignorant of just how we did it. Oh, they know we violated privacy in a lot of cases, but they’re willing to overlook it.”

“Very white of them, I’m sure,” Escher grunted. He took up the club and set the ball back on its carpet tee. “How about a game tomorrow afternoon?”

MacDonald shook his head. “It didn’t bother the Board much, Claude, but I followed your advertising and I was down to the port to see a contingent of our new colonists take off. It bothers me , Claude. The ads you sent to the different planets, the whispering campaign we arranged for, the subtle propaganda we sent out—and then the women. Don’t you think there will be some sort of howl? We’ve definitely led them to believe one thing and here we’re sending them—well, the new colonists leave a lot to be desired.”

Escher looked at him coldly. “Look, Mac, let’s be cynical about this. That’s why it was referred to us in the first place. Of course the girls we sent aren’t the most beautiful or the most glamorous. Those girls are already married and you couldn’t get them to leave, no matter what you did. The girls we sent are the ones who weren’t wanted here on Earth. We even killed two birds with one stone and solved the crime problem.”

He held up his hand when MacDonald started to object.

“Don’t say it, Mac. Stop and think for a moment. What danger can a shoplifter do on a colony planet? There’s nothing to steal. And without large cities, most other types of crime will have equally tough sledding. Besides, we eliminated those who had natural criminal tendencies. Most of the others had drifted into it as an outlet for their sense of insecurity, the feeling of not being wanted.”

MacDonald looked worried.

“All right, what happens when the colonists find out, Claude? What happens when they find out we shipped them the castoffs, the leftovers?”

“The point is, Mac, they’ll never find out. They’re Second System colonists. You know how the Colonization Board works. Planet A colonizes planet B. Planet B colonizes planet C. Given a suitable number of generations, the people on planet C will never have seen people from planet A. Earth is planet A. The colony planets to which the women were sent are all planet Cs.

“You see, the catch is that the colonists will have no basis on which to make comparisons. They’ve never seen women from Earth!”

“I still don’t like it. They have seen women from other planets. After taking a look at the last shipload of females that left Earth, I’m still worried.”

Escher laughed. “That’s because you haven’t seen some of the colony women, Mac. Tell me, what is the most cultured and socially up-to-date planet? Earth, of course. Now on what planet has husband-hunting and pleasing been developed into an all-out struggle with fine scientific techniques? Earth, again. The colonists don’t have a chance.

“When it comes to catching and pleasing the male, the girls from Earth have really had an education. They can take care of themselves. Don’t worry about that. Who’s to tell the colonists the girls aren’t the cream of the crop, anyway? Not the girls themselves, certainly. And not us. I tell you they’ll never find out, Mac.”

“You’re positive that the colonists will be pleased with the women?”

Escher hesitated. “Well, reasonably.” He sounded a little wistful. He practiced his swing a few more times, barely missing the lamp on his desk.

“I thought the advertising was rather clever, too. They’ll feel a great obligation to us for sending them ‘Earth’s Fairest Daughters.’ Be good for strengthening the ties to the mother planet.”

MacDonald looked somewhat happier.

“What about the women themselves, though? We sold them a bill of goods, too, you know. They’re expecting modern cities and handsome, rugged heroes for husbands. I know damn well that a lot of the colonies aren’t much more than sinkholes and I suspect the sanitary, rugged, thoughtful male is strictly off the artist’s drawing board. What happens when the women find that out?”

Escher took the ball out of the glass and went back a few paces for another try.

“Don’t forget, Mac, the girls are the ones who weren’t wanted here, the ones who were heading up for lives as old maids. They’re going to planets where they’re strictly a scarce item, where they’ll be appreciated. The colonists will think they’re getting something special and they’ll treat the girls that way. They’ll take good care of them. There might be a few difficulties at first, but it’ll come out all right.”

“In other words, the whole thing hinges on how the colonists receive the girls. Isn’t that it?”

The ball thunked solidly into the glass again and rolled out.

“That’s right. We’ve hedged our bets the best we can. Now we’ll have to wait and see. But I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

“Uh-huh,” MacDonald grumbled. “It works out nice in theory, but I wonder how it’ll be in practice.”

VIII

Phyllis let the deceleration press her into the cot and tried to relax. In ten minutes they would be disembarking in Landing City. Landing City, with its wide, paved streets and modern buildings, the neatly laid-out farms and the modern rocket port.

There was a clanging of bells, a sudden feeling of nausea, and she knew they had landed. In the excited buzz of conversation from the others, she got her small suitcase and filed toward the hatch.

They took her name and gave her the emigration bonus, and then she was on the ramp going down, smelling the cool fresh air and feeling a damp breeze against her face.

She looked down....

The modern rocket port was a scorched expanse of dirty ground, with a rusting shed at one end that she guessed was the office. Landing City was a collection of rundown shacks and corrugated huts with mud streets and wooden sidewalks running between them.