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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
162
And
here,
at
this
moment,
the
real
struggle
for
Earth
began.
Learned
behavior
patterns
intertwined
with
basic
life
drives
forced
Barrent
to
raise
the
needlebeam,
to
point
it
toward
his
head.
This
was
what
the
robot-confessor
had
tried
to
warn
him
about,
and
what
the
mutant
girl
had
skrenned.
The
younger
Barrent,
conditioned
to
absolute
and
mindless
conformity,
had
to
kill
himself.
The
older
Barrent
who
had
spent
time
on
Omega
fought
that
blind
urge.
A
schizophrenic
Barrent
fought
himself.
The
two
parts
of
him
battled
for
possession
of
the
weapon,
for
control
of
the
body,
for
ownership
of
the
mind.
The
needlebeam's
movement
stopped
inches
from
his
head.
The
muzzle
wavered.
Then
slowly,
the
new
Omegan
Barrent,
Barrent-2,
forced
the
weapon
away.
His
victory
was
short-lived.
For
now
the
lessons
of
the
closed
classroom
took
over,
forcing
Barrent-2
into
a
contrasurvival
struggle
with
the
implacable
and
death-desiring
Barrent-1.
Chapter
Thirty
Conditioning
took
over
and
flung
the
fighting
Barrents
backward
through
subjective
time,
to
those
stress
points
in
the
past
where
death
had
been
near,
where
the
temporal
life
fabric
had
been
weakened,
where
a
predisposition
toward
death
had
already
been
established.
Conditioning
forced
Barrent-2
to
re-experience
those
moments.
But
this
time,
the
danger
was
augmented
by
the
full
force
of
the
malignant
half
of
his
personality--by
the
murderous
informer,
Barrent-1.
Barrent-2
stood
under
glaring
lights
on
the
blood-stained
sands
of
the
Arena,
a
sword
in
his
hand.
It
was
the
time
of
the
Omegan
Games.
Coming
at
him
was
the
Saunus,
a
heavily
armored
reptile
with
the
leering
face
of
Barrent-1.
Barrent-2
severed
the
creature's
tail,
and
it
changed
into
three
trichomotreds,
rat-sized,
Barrent-faced,
with
the
dispositions
of
rabid
wolverines.
He
killed
two,
and
the
third
grinned
and
bit
his
left
hand
to
the
bone.
He
killed
it,
and
watched
Barrent-1's
blood
leak
into
the
soggy
sand....
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