The Status Civilization

On their second day, they climbed high into the hills. They ate a basket lunch on a grassy incline which sloped away to the gray sea. After they had eaten, Barrent asked Moera why she had saved his life. "You won't like the answer," she told him. "I'd still like to hear it." "Well, you looked so ridiculously vulnerable that day in the Victim's Society. I would have helped anyone who looked that way." Barrent nodded uncomfortably. "What about the second time?" "By then I suppose I had an interest in you. Not a romantic interest, you understand. I'm not at all romantic." "What kind of an interest?" Barrent asked. "I thought you might be good recruitment material." "I'd like to hear more about it," Barrent said. Moera was silent for a while, watching him with unblinking green eyes. She said, "There's not much I can tell you. I'm a member of an organization. We're always on the lookout for good prospects. Usually we screen directly from the prison ships. After that, recruiters like me go out in search of people we can use." "What type of people do you look for?" "Not your type, Will. I'm sorry." "Why not me?" "At first I thought seriously about recruiting you," Moera said. "You seemed like just the sort of person we needed. Then I checked into your record." "And?" "We don't recruit murderers. Sometimes we employ them for specific jobs, but we don't take them into the organization. There are certain extenuating circumstances which we recognize; self-defense, for example. But aside from that, we feel that a man who has committed premeditated murder on Earth is the wrong man for us."