BooksBarbecue
Back Worlds Enough and Time
Chapters (90)
  1. Title Page
  2. Enter the SF Gateway …
  3. Contents
  4. Author Note
  5. PROLOGUE: TRANSCRIPT
  6. IDENTITIES
  7. YEAR 0.005
  8. EARTHWATCH
  9. A CHANCE TO DREAM
  10. MEETING OF MINDS
  11. GENESIS AND REVELATION
  12. GRAVE IMAGE
  13. THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
  14. MANEUVERING
  15. BIG SISTER
  16. THE POWER TO SOOTHE
  17. YEAR 1.00
  18. ABOUT TIME
  19. HAPPY NEW YEAR
  20. TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS
  21. FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS INCLINATIONS
  22. IN THE DEAD VAST AND MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
  23. OPTIONS
  24. DRIFTING
  25. DIVIDE AND MULTIPLY
  26. DIONYSUS MEETS GODZILLA
  27. 10
  28. DIDN’T SHE RAMBLE?
  29. YEAR 1.33
  30. LONG-RANGE PLANS
  31. NEW BEGINNINGS
  32. UNTIMELY PLUCKED
  33. BLUES
  34. YEAR 1.88
  35. LABOR-SAVING DEVICE
  36. FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE TO THE CRADLE
  37. A MODEST PROPOSAL
  38. ADVICE TO THE LOVELORN
  39. ONE PART HARMONY
  40. TWO PARTS DISCORD
  41. YEAR 3.21
  42. LEAVINGS
  43. REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
  44. TRANSLATING
  45. YEAR 5.71
  46. WATERSHED, BLOODSHED
  47. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
  48. A WOMAN OF DISCRIMINATION
  49. THAT TIME OF YEAR THOU MAYE5T IN ME BEHOLD
  50. CATEGORIES
  51. YEAR 6.26
  52. AULD ACQUAINTANCE
  53. SOWING, REAPING
  54. TEMPERAMENT
  55. BAD SEED
  56. YEAR 8.36
  57. HUSBANDRY
  58. POPULATION EXPLOSION
  59. YEAR 9.88
  60. HOMECOMING
  61. THE BURDENS OF FAITH
  62. YEAR 11.07
  63. GROWING PAINS
  64. LONG-DISTANCE CALL
  65. FOUR NOVELS
  66. AGE 55
  67. IN DREAMS AWAKE
  68. UP TEMPO
  69. JUVENILIA
  70. POOL PARTY
  71. INTERIM REPORT
  72. CHANCES
  73. BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE
  74. FINAL APPROACH
  75. AGE 56
  76. DAY ZERO
  77. FIRST CONTACT
  78. LETTER ‘HOME
  79. HOUSEKEEPING
  80. AGE 57
  81. SETTLING, UNSETTLING
  82. THE HUNT
  83. FINAL EXAM
  84. AGE 100
  85. Website
  86. Also by Joe Haldeman
  87. Dedication
  88. EPILOGUE
  89. Author Bio
  90. Copyright
IMAGE: Hello, Marianne.
O’HARA: Hello. Do you have logic capabilities?
IMAGE: I can respond to simple queries, though my memory is limited. My main function is to deliver a message, and then erase myself when you turn off the machine.
O’HARA: I was told to physically destroy the slide as well.
IMAGE: Yes.
O’HARA: I can’t imagine being party to anything so top secret.
IMAGE: I cannot assess your ability to imagine. Shall I begin?
O’HARA: Go ahead.
IMAGE: (Blurs momentarily, then relaxes) Sorry for this format, Marianne, (smiles) I guess I didn’t see any way to bring this up safely face-to-face. Not while you are who you are now, and I am who I am. (Fingers the Coordinator “C” figured into her lapel.) What I am.
I wanted Harry to keep an eye on you, and give this to you when he thought the time was right. At least ten years. He hasn’t seen it … nobody has … but he knows what it’s about.
I must ask your word that you will never discuss this with anyone but Harry, for the time being. And never with anyone who isn’t in the Cabinet or Coordinator pool.
O’HARA: What if I feel I can’t do that?
IMAGE: (blurs) I will have to erase myself.
O’HARA: May I have some time to think over the responsibility? A hint as to what it’s about?
IMAGE: No.
O’HARA: Well … all right. You have my word.
IMAGE: (blurs) This will be short and not sweet, Marianne. The government you’re participating in is not a democracy by anyone’s definition. The weekly referendum is a total hoax; the results are arrived at before the voting; and I doubt that one out of three decisions follows the will of the people.
O’Hara is staring openmouthed.
You’re now a member of a hand-picked meritocracy. Part of the psychological testing that we all have to put up with is to ensure that we will be able to participate in a benign conspiracy, before getting on the socalled ballot.
This goes beyond realpolitik, and it’s not a rejection of democracy as a principle. But there are situations when democracy doesn’t work unmodified, and you’re in the middle of one of them.
O’HARA: Ten thousand people sealed up together in a small pressure vessel.
IMAGE: You may remember that we considered the possibility of instituting a quasi-military kind of social structure in Newhome—captain, officers, crew.
O’HARA: In the Start-up discussion group.
IMAGE: It was rejected because our people have lived under democracy, or at least its illusion, for too long. We would never have found ten thousand volunteers if they thought they were giving up their citizenship.
O’HARA: Has this been going on from the beginning?
IMAGE: (blurs) You mean since New New’s original charter?
O’HARA: Whatever. How long?
IMAGE: I have no historical data beyond Sandra Berrigan’s actual experience. The degree of interference increased dramatically after the war, but the principle was firmly in place before she took office.
You should ask Harry Purcell.