Despotism -- Fiction; Dissenters -- Fiction; Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction
She came to rest upon the almost but not quite airless bulk of Alphin
II some thirty hours after her escape from Alphin III. Kim was
desperately hungry. But for the lesser gravity of the smaller inner
planet, which was responsible for its thinned-out atmosphere, he might
have staggered as he walked. Certainly a normal space-suit would have
been a heavy burden for a man who had starved for days. Dona, also,
looked pale and worn-out when she took from him the things he brought
back through the airlock.
They put the great masses of spongy, woody stuff in the synthesizer. It
was organic matter. Some of it, perhaps, could have been consumed as
food in its original state. But the synthesizer received it, and hummed
and buzzed quietly to itself, and presently the man and woman ate.
The synthesizer was not the equivalent of those magnificently complex
food-machines which in public dining-halls provide almost every dish
the gourmets have ever invented from raw materials. But it did make a
palatable meal from the tasteless vegetation of the small planet.
Kim said quietly, when they had finished eating, "Now we'll find out
for certain what Burt intends to do about us." He grimaced. "He's
dangerously intelligent. He underestimated me before. He may consider
us dead, or he may overestimate us. I think he'll play it safe. I
would, in his place."
"What does that mean?" Dona asked wistfully. "We will be able
to go to some other planet, won't we, Kim? As if we'd gone in the
matter-transmitter in a perfectly normal fashion? Simply to take up
residence on another world?"
Kim shook his head. "I'm beginning to doubt it," he said slowly. "The
discovery that with a bit of hafnium a man can change his psychographic
pattern is high explosive. If the Disciplinary Circuit can't pick him
out as an individual, any man can defy any government which depends
on the Circuit. Which means that no government is safe. I've got to
remove you for the sake of the government everywhere in the Galaxy."
"But they can't touch us here," said Dona. "We're safe now."
Kim shook his head.
"No. I was too hungry to think, before. We're not safe. I've got to
work like the devil. Do you remember your Galactic History? Remember
what the Disciplinary Circuit was built up to? Remember the Last War?
It's not only the space-ships which went into museums. I'm suddenly
scared stiff."
He stood up and abruptly began to put on the space-suit again. His face
had become haggard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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