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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
73
Back
in
his
apartment,
he
considered
carefully
the
details
of
his
dream
in
the
Dream
Shop.
It
was
all
there:
his
anger
at
Therkaler,
the
illicit
weapon,
the
encounter,
the
corpse,
and
then
the
informer
and
the
judge.
Only
one
thing
was
missing.
He
had
no
recollection
of
the
actual
murder,
no
memory
of
aiming
the
weapon
and
activating
it.
The
dream
stopped
when
he
met
Therkaler,
and
started
again
after
he
was
dead.
Perhaps
he
had
blocked
the
moment
of
actual
murder
out
of
his
mind;
but
perhaps
there
had
been
some
provocation,
some
satisfactory
reason
why
he
had
killed
the
man.
He
would
have
to
find
out.
There
were
only
two
ways
of
getting
information
about
Earth.
One
lay
through
the
horror-tinged
visions
of
the
Dream
Shop,
and
he
was
determined
not
to
go
there
again.
The
other
way
was
through
the
services
of
a
skrenning
mutant.
Barrent
had
the
usual
distaste
for
mutants.
They
were
another
race
entirely,
and
their
status
of
untouchability
was
no
mere
prejudice.
It
was
well
known
that
mutants
often
carried
strange
and
incurable
diseases.
They
were
shunned,
and
they
had
reacted
to
exclusion
by
exclusiveness.
They
lived
in
the
Mutant
Quarter,
which
was
almost
a
self-contained
city
within
Tetrahyde.
Citizens
with
good
sense
stayed
away
from
the
Quarter,
especially
after
dark;
everyone
knew
that
mutants
could
be
vindictive.
But
only
mutants
had
the
skrenning
ability.
In
their
misshapen
bodies
were
unusual
powers
and
talents,
odd
and
abnormal
abilities
which
the
normal
man
shunned
by
day
but
secretly
courted
by
night.
Mutants
were
said
to
be
in
the
particular
favor
of
The
Black
One.
Some
people
felt
that
the
great
art
of
Black
Magic,
about
which
the
priests
boasted,
could
only
be
performed
by
a
mutant;
but
one
never
said
so
in
the
presence
of
a
priest.
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