immutable facts of life.”
“Okay, this is lots more fun than being old would be, anyway. What’ll we try next, Paula?”
“I’d like to go back up into the Fourth Nume and really explore it-turn it inside out-that is,
if there’s nothing more important at the moment?” Paula quirked an eyebrow at Deston.
There was not. Goodbyes were said, and promises were made to meet soon and often,
and the Destons ‘ported themselves away.
Maynard called a special meeting of the Board to order and said, “Since you all know
what the Tellurian situation is, politically and otherwise, I won’t go into it. It seems to
some of us, however, that this recent disaster may not be a disaster at all; that, if we
play our cards properly, we may be able to secure much better results than if our
blockade of Tellus had succeeded.
“With all threat of nuclear warfare removed, WestHem’s so-called defense spending will
stop; in fact, much of it has already stopped. Ordinarily, this would not he a blessing,
since business would slump into a rapidly accelerating downward spiral. A bad
recession, or even a severe panic, would follow. Any such result could be avoided, of
course, if WestHem’s government would cut taxes in the full amount of defense spending;
hut has any one of you an imagination sufficiently elastic to encompass the idea of that
government giving up half its income and firing that many hundreds of thousands of
political hangers-on?”
There was a burst of scornful laughter.
“Mine isn’t, either. As you know, defense stocks are already plummeting. They are
dropping the limit every day. Due to public panic, they will continue to drop to a point
below-in some cases to a point much below the actual value of the properties. I propose
that we start buying before that point is reached. Not enough to support the market, of
course; just enough to control it at whatever rate of decline the specialists will compute
as being certain to result in our gaining control.
“Having gained control of the largest-excuse me, I’m getting ahead of myself. I assure
you that this program is financially feasible. I am authorized to say that in addition to
GalBank, whose statements you all get, Deston and Deston, Warner Oil, Interstellar, and
Galactic Metals will all put their treasuries behind this project.” There was a burst of
applause.
“Since we are very large holders of these stocks already, there is no doubt that we can
obtain control. We will then re-hire all the personnel who have been laid off and convert
to the production of luxury goods, preferably of the more expensive and less durable
types. We will finance the purchase of these goods ourselves . . .”
This time, they clapped and whistled and stamped their feet.
. . . and put on a massive advertising campaign for such basic spending as
modernization, new housing, and so on. All of this, however, will be secondary to our
main purpose. None of you have realized as yet that this is the first chance we have ever
had of forming a political party and actually electing a government of WestHem that will
govern it……
There was a storm of applause that lasted for five minutes. Then Maynard went on:
“The Board seems to be in favor of such action. Mr. Stevens Spehn, who has clone a
great deal of work on the political aspects of this idea, will now take the floor.”
Chapter 17
PUNSUNBY’S WORLD
Many parsecs distant from the remotest outpost of civilization there was a planet known
to its inhabitants only as The World. The World and everything pertaining to it, including
the People and the Sun and the Moons and the little night-lights in the sky, had been
created by The Company on Compday, January First in the Year One; and this day-also
a Compday, of course-was the two hundred twenty sixth anniversary of that date: Jan. 1,
226. There was no celebration or ceremony-in fact, there were no words in the language
to express any such concept-but, since it was Compday, all Operators worked only half
a shift.
In the Beginning the Company had decreed that there were to be three hundred eighty
four days (plus an extra Compday, to be announced by the Highest Agent, once every
few years) in each year. Each year had twelve months; each month four weeks; each
week eight days Compday, Sonday, Monday, Tonday, Wonday, Thurday, Furday, and
Surday. All Operators were to work exactly half of each of those days except Compday,
upon which they were to work only a quarter; the other quarter was to be devoted to
being happy and to thinking pleasant thoughts of the Company, of its goodness in
furnishing them all with happiness and with life and its comforts.
No other World had ever been created or ever would be, nor any other People. The
Company and The World comprised the Cosmic All.
The World had not changed and it never would change; The Company had so decreed.
Not to the People directly, of course; the Company was an immaterial, omniscient,
omnipotent entity that, except in the matter of punishment, dealt with People only through
Company Agents. These Agents were not People, but were supermen and superwomen
far above People; so far above People that the lowest-caste Company Agents had qual-
ities that not even the highest-caste People could understand.
Upon very rare occasions the Company, whose symbol was A A A A A A A, appeared in
a form of flesh to the Highest Agent, the Comptroller General of The World, whose
symbol was A A A A A A B; and, emitting the pure mercury-vapor Light of the Company
and in the sight and the hearing of the highest-caste Company Agents, uttered sacred
Company Orders.
Company Agents of various high castes transmitted these Orders to the Managers, who
told the Assistant Managers, who told the Chiefs, who told the Assistant Chiefs, who told
the Heads, who told the Assistant Heads, who told the Foremen, who told the Shift
Bosses, who told the lower-caste People who were the Operators what to do and saw
to it that they did it.
At the time of the World’s creation The Company had issued a three-fold Prime Directive;
which was immutable and eternal: ALL PEOPLE MUST: 1) Be happy. 2) Produce more
and more People. 3) Produce more and more Goods.
If a Person obeyed these three injunctions all his life, his immaterial Aura-the thing that
made him alive, not dead, and that made him different from all other Persons-when he
became dead was absorbed into the Company and he would be happy forever.
On the other hand, there were a few who did not follow the Prime Directive literally and
exactly. These were the mals-the malcontents, the maladjusts, the malefactors-the
thinkers, the questioners, the unbelievers -the unhappy for any cause. They were blasted
out of existence by the Company itself and that was the end of them, auras and all.
And that was fair enough. Every Person was born into a caste. He grew up in that caste.
He was trained to do what his ancestors had done and what his descendants would do.
He had children in that caste, all of whom became of it. He lived his whole life in that
caste and died in it. That was, is, and ever shall be the way of life, and that is precisely
the way it should be: for in pure order, and only in pure order, lies security; and in
security, and only in security, lies happiness; and happiness is the First Consideration of
the Prime Directive. Mals of all kinds are threats to order, to security, and to happiness;
therefore all mals must die. So it was, is, and ever shall be. Selah. It is written.
Following the Prime Directive was easy enough; for most people, in fact, easier than not
following it. Since happiness was simply the state of not being unhappy, and there was
nothing in the normal life to be unhappy about, happiness was the norm.
Producing People, too, was a normal part of life. Furthermore, since the Company
punished pre-family sexual experience with Company wrath just a few volts short of
death, the family state brought a new and different kind of happiness. Every female
Person’s job assignment was to produce, between the ages of eighteen and thirty, ten
children, and then to keep on running her family unless and until she was transferred to
some other job. Since every nubile girl wanted a man of her own, and since children were
a source of happiness on their own account, not one woman in a thousand had to be
brainwashed at all to really like the job of running a family.
And as for producing Goods-why not? That was what People were created for, and that
was all that men were good for-except, of course, for fathering children. Also, there was