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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
113
"How
soon
do
we
start?"
Barrent
asked.
"Right
now,"
Eylan
said.
Barrent
received
a
general
briefing
on
the
physical
make-up
of
Earth,
its
climate
and
major
population
centers.
Then
he
was
sent
to
Colonel
Bray,
formerly
of
the
Earth
Deep
Space
Establishment.
Bray
talked
to
him
about
the
probable
military
strength
of
Earth
as
represented
by
the
number
of
guardships
around
Omega
and
their
apparent
level
of
scientific
development.
He
gave
estimates
of
the
size
of
the
Earth
forces,
their
probable
divisions
into
land,
sea,
and
space
groups,
their
assumed
level
of
efficiency.
An
aide,
Captain
Carell,
lectured
on
special
weapons,
their
probable
types
and
ranges,
their
availability
to
the
general
Earth
population.
Another
aide,
Lieutenant
Daoud,
talked
about
detection
devices,
their
probable
locations,
and
how
to
avoid
them.
Then
Barrent
was
turned
back
to
Eylan
for
political
indoctrination.
From
him,
Barrent
learned
that
Earth
was
believed
to
be
a
dictatorship.
He
learned
the
methods
of
a
dictatorship,
its
peculiar
strengths
and
weaknesses,
the
role
of
the
secret
police,
the
use
of
terror,
the
problem
of
informers.
When
Eylan
was
finished
with
him,
Barrent
went
to
a
small,
beady-eyed
man
who
lectured
on
Earth's
memory-destroying
system.
Using
the
premise
that
memory-destruction
was
regularly
employed
to
render
opposition
ineffective,
the
man
went
on
to
construct
the
probable
nature
of
an
underground
movement
on
Earth
given
those
circumstances,
and
how
Barrent
might
contact
them,
and
what
the
underground's
capabilities
might
be.
Finally
he
was
given
the
full
details
of
Group
Two's
plan
for
getting
him
on
board
the
ship.
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