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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
47
At
night,
after
the
doors
and
windows
were
barred
and
the
triplex
alarm
system
had
been
set,
Barrent
would
lie
on
his
bed
and
try
to
remember
Earth.
Probing
into
the
misty
recesses
of
his
memory,
he
found
tantalizing
hints
and
traces,
and
fragments
of
pictures.
Here
was
a
great
highway
curving
toward
the
sun;
a
fragment
of
a
huge,
multi-level
city;
a
closeup
view
of
a
starship's
curving
hull.
But
the
pictures
were
not
continuous.
They
existed
for
the
barest
fraction
of
a
second,
then
vanished.
On
Saturday,
Barrent
spent
the
evening
with
Joe,
Danis
Foeren,
and
his
neighbor
Tem
Rend.
Joe's
pokra
had
prospered,
and
he
had
been
able
to
bribe
his
way
to
the
status
of
Free
Citizen.
Foeren
was
too
blunt
and
straightforward
for
that;
he
had
remained
at
the
Residency
level.
But
Tem
Rend
promised
to
take
the
big
forger
as
an
assistant
if
the
Assassin's
Guild
accepted
his
application.
The
evening
started
pleasantly
enough;
but
it
ended,
as
usual,
with
an
argument
about
Earth.
"Now
look,"
Joe
said,
"we
all
know
what
Earth
is
like.
It's
a
complex
of
gigantic
floating
cities.
They're
built
on
artificial
islands
in
the
various
oceans--"
"No,
the
cities
are
on
land,"
Barrent
said.
"On
water,"
Joe
said.
"The
people
of
Earth
have
returned
to
the
sea.
Everyone
has
special
oxygen
adaptors
for
breathing
salt
water.
The
land
areas
aren't
even
used
any
more.
The
sea
provides
everything
that--"
"It
isn't
like
that,"
Barrent
said.
"I
remember
huge
cities,
but
they
were
all
on
land."
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