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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
108
"How
did
you
produce
that?"
Barrent
asked.
"It
has
to
do
with
friction
surfaces
and
planes
of
force,"
Eylan
said.
"You'd
have
to
ask
our
engineers
for
more
details."
"Why
did
you
rescue
me?"
Barrent
asked.
Eylan
glanced
at
Moera,
who
shrugged
her
shoulders.
Looking
uncomfortable,
Eylan
said,
"We'd
like
to
use
you
for
an
important
job.
But
before
I
tell
you
about
it,
I
think
you
should
know
something
about
our
organization.
Certainly
you
must
have
some
curiosity
about
us."
"A
great
deal,"
Barrent
said.
"Are
you
some
kind
of
criminal
elite?"
"We're
an
elite,"
Eylan
said,
"but
we
don't
consider
ourselves
criminal.
Two
entirely
different
types
of
people
have
been
sent
to
Omega.
There
are
the
true
criminals
guilty
of
murder,
arson,
armed
robbery,
and
the
like.
Those
are
the
people
you
lived
among.
And
there
are
the
people
guilty
of
deviational
crimes
such
as
political
unreliability,
scientific
unorthodoxy,
and
irreligious
attitudes.
These
people
compose
our
organization,
which,
for
the
purposes
of
identification,
we
call
Group
Two.
As
far
as
we
can
remember
and
reconstruct,
our
crimes
were
largely
a
matter
of
holding
different
opinions
from
those
which
prevailed
upon
Earth.
We
were
nonconformists.
We
probably
constituted
an
unstable
element,
and
a
threat
to
the
entrenched
powers.
Therefore
we
were
deported
to
Omega."
"And
you
separated
yourselves
from
the
other
deportees,"
Barrent
said.
"Yes,
necessarily.
For
one
thing,
the
true
criminals
of
Group
One
are
not
readily
controllable.
We
couldn't
lead
them,
nor
could
we
allow
ourselves
to
be
led
by
them.
But
more
important
than
that,
we
had
a
job
to
do
that
could
only
be
performed
in
secrecy.
We
had
no
idea
what
devices
the
guardships
employed
to
watch
the
surface
of
Omega.
To
keep
our
security
intact,
we
went
underground--literally.
The
room
you're
in
now
is
about
two
hundred
feet
below
the
surface.
We
stay
out
of
sight,
except
for
special
agents
like
Moera,
who
separate
the
political
and
social
prisoners
who
belong
in
Group
Two
from
the
others."
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