MAREK C. HUBERAT
	YOU CAME BACK, SNEOGG, I KNEW IT...
	I.
	A number of light spots were visible on the floor. Snorg
liked to watch them creeping on the mat covering. A long time ago
he had found out that a light came in through the small windows
on the ceiling. He liked to lie on the floor and to bask in the
warm rays. He tried to stir his hands, but all he did was slide
helplessly from the bed.
	"Dags..." He hissed through clenched teeth, as he could not
open his numb jaws.
	"Daags..."
	One of the Dagses who was sitting in front of the screen
visor turned his head. He reacted to the noise of the falling
body, rather than to the voice of Snorg. Mozie was humming her
melody all the time, substituting the words with quiet gibbering.
Dags crawled with several quick jumps to Snorg, and gave him a
hard slap. Both Dagses had very strong arms but they made almost
no use of their underdeveloped legs.
	"Ble - ble." Muttered Dags and made a few rhythmic movements
with his shoulders which probably meant that Snorg would be able
to move his arms. The other Dags crawled up and started pulling
Snorg by the hair with whatever force he had. He felt a terrible
pain, but it was that which pleased him most.
	"The head..." He thought. "Good... Good again."
	The second Dags started poking into his eyes. Snorg jerked
his head and reared with pain. The first Dags hit the second so
hard that he fell and rolled off. Tears were streaming from his
eyes and he could not see if Dags had stuck all the wires into
his muscles and if all electrodes were fastened correctly. He
believed, however, that Dags would have done it well as usual. He
himself could only picture how Dags was checking whether the
installation was in order. Both Dagses had their eyes set quite
apart and because of that they turned their heads in a funny way.
	"Tavegner! Shall I tell you a story?" It was the powerful
voice of Piki. Snorg had always admired his articulation. As
usual, he heard every word clearly, though the lack of auricles
limited his auditory abilities.
	A strong gurgling sound was heard in response. Tavegner was
lying permanently immovable and only the gurgling betrayed his
presence. But if he had been able to stand up, he would clearly
have been the tallest, taller than both Tib and Aspe. Tib was
always standing and that was why she was so tall.
	Maybe I would be even taller than her, if I could stand
upright, Snorg thought. He was pleased that today he felt the
whole of his head. He owed this to the small service which the
Dagses did every day for him.
	"Shut up Piki!" Mozie shouted. "You can tell me later, now I
am singing."
	His hands were insensitive like cudgels up to the wrists but
moved in obedience to his will. He pulled out the whole tangle of
wires and tubes and punched hard under his shoulder. He felt
nothing.
	"At least I can move." He thought. He examined the wounds
and cuts on his body. Most of them were healing. There were,
however, two new scratches as a result of his fall to the floor.
The wounds were Snorg's nightmare. Any carelessness on his part,
whenever he knocked into a piece of furniture, even without
feeling it, would rip his skin. He was always afraid he wouldn't
notice the wound on time and it would get infected. He crawled to
the visor. Tib was standing motionless in front of it and one of
the Dagses was trying hard to pull down her nightdress from
below.
	"I wonder who dresses her?" He thought. The Dagses did the
same thing everyday and every morning she was dressed again. At
last the grey nightdress of Tib slid down to the floor and Dags
started to climb up her leg.
	Snorg watched what was going to happen. What happened did so
all the time - the little one could do nothing. When he reached
quite high, Tib just crossed her legs. Dags resignedly started
watching the screen of the visor. Tib was already a woman - Snorg
became aware of that just at that moment. She looked almost
exactly the way they were shown on the screen of the visor during
one of the lectures.
	She seemed somewhat narrow in the thighs and far too tall,
but otherwise everything was like on the screen... Up to now he
had looked at her as a piece of furniture, as an immovable
decoration in the Room. She had always seemed to him too massy,
all the more so when looking at her from the floor.
	He very much wanted to have a talk with Tib sometime. She
was the only being in the room with whom he had had no success up
to now in establishing contact. Even Tavegner who was lying
motionless like a heap of flesh and could not utter a word, had
very interesting things to say. It was just necessary to talk to
him very skillfully: a gurgling meant "yes", twice - "no".
Tavegner filled almost half the room and for a long time
everybody thought he was just like Tib. Piki was the one to guess
how to understand him. The Dagses first discovered that he
reacted to jabbing, because they liked to sit on his large, warm
and soft body. Piki was usually very smart and worked out that
Tavegner should gurgle one "yes" at the appropriate letter of the
alphabet, and when he wanted to show the end of the word - twice
more in addition. After that everything piled up around him.
Snorg even brought the box with Piki and the Dagses brought along
Mozie. They all started spelling letter after letter.
	"My name is Tavegner." He said then. After that he said many
more other things: that he loved the Dagses, that he thanked Piki
and asked to be moved a little so he could see the screens
better. Recently, however, Tavegner had become lazy: he preferred
being asked questions to which he could just say "yes" or "no".
Snorg scampered to Piki.
	"Piki, are you a man or a woman?" he asked and began to
unroll the sheet.
	"Leave me, Snorg... go to hell... I am just Piki." His small
body was swaying. Eventually Snorg unrolled him completely and
immediately after that set to wrapping him up again.
	"You are Piki, indeed." He said.
	"You are a fool, I've been telling you this all along." Piki
pursed his lips contemptuously. "The Dagses would have discovered
it a long time ago had it been otherwise." Piki had a gorgeous
head, bigger even than the head of Snorg and extremely well
built, better even than the heads of those whom he watched on the
screens.
	"You have a splendid head, Piki." Snorg said hoping to
please him at last. Piki became almost red.
	"I know, and you have a rather repulsive countenance,
although it is quite regular, but for the ears..." He retorted.
"I am much more intelligent," He continued, "and I shall remain
alive when you will be fast forgotten."
	"What are you talking about?" Snorg asked.
	"It is nothing. Give me the hose."
	Snorg tugged the excretions sucker from the wall, shoved it
under Piki and went away. On the visor there were trees, lots of
trees. They were nice and colorful, and were swinging
rhythmically. Snorg had never seen a real tree and had always
dreamt of stretching on something like that. He imagined how the
trees would line around him, forming a soft, warm bedding. On the
visor they always showed beautiful things: vast landscapes, and
people with a normal body frame. They also taught them various
useful things by the visor. Snorg felt sorry and guilty. He felt
sorry that he was not as handsome as the people on the screen who
made different complicated movements. From the floor they seemed
almost perfect. He was convinced that he himself was to blame for
his being what he was and not like the people in the nice
pictures on the visor, but he did not understand why the guilt
should be his. When he was watching them he forgot everything. He
gulped with his eyes visions and knowledge. Thanks to the visor
he had seen and knew many things which had never been present in
the Room. A woman appeared on the screen. She was standing
motionless. She was being used to show what proportions the body
of a harmoniously built woman should possess. Tib was standing
next to the screen and was looking glassily in front of her. He
started comparing her to the one on the screen. Tib was bald,
quite bald. She hadn't a single hair on her body and because of
that her head was quite different from the head of the woman, but
Snorg tried to imagine how she would look like with some hair and
it appeared that she was not so bad. She had small ears, a little
upright and slightly transparent against the light. Snorg was
particularly envious of these ears of hers. On the screen the
broadcaster marked by a contour line the normal proportions of
the body and Snorg crept to Tib in order to measure her
proportions with a piece of string. Not only were her arms equal
in length but so were her legs. Her arms were, as well, shorter
than the legs, and even in the tiniest details her figure
corresponded to that of the sample. To test the proportion
between the head and the body, he squatted and stretched his arms
upwards. All fitted. He examined her with admiration.
	Her body is quite normal, he thought, and realized that he
had managed to squat using his insensitive legs. And fell at
once.
	His ears kept on rumbling for a long time. That meant he had
lost consciousness by falling. Then he heard Piki shouting to
Mozie:
	"Leave him! Don't resist... he will finish and he will go
away."
	Mozie loudly cried:
	"I can't stand him... this nasty animal... stop it! 
	Snorg raised his head: one of the dagses had climbed in the
box with Mozie. 
	"Little by little this situation is getting unbearable." He
thought.  "One cannot turn on them... cannot get the better of
them."
	Dags stopped grunting and jumped to the floor.
	II.
	Piki was about to tell a tale. The Dagses were pressing his
hand and he could make only limited motions. When free he
scratched his face all the time.
	"Excellent... Splendid." He repeated. "You don't know how to
use your body."
	With a few knocks the dagses brought him to his senses. He
started to narrate:
	"It was a fascinating dream..." Piki closed his eyes. "I was
flying in the air... it was wonderful... I had flat wings on both
sides such as they sometimes show on the visor... The air was
moving together with me... a marvelous coolness exhaled..." His
voice was getting lower as if he was talking to his thoughts,"
Mozie was flying next to me... her wings were bright green... she
had four wings and was fluttering so that I regretted that I am
only Piki..."
	A noisy gurgling came from the corner.
	"Tavegner asks you to talk louder," Snorg said and it was
confirmed by one more gurgling.
	"All right... I am going to talk louder." Said Piki as if he
had woken up. "The room was getting ever smaller," he went on,
"... and everything became ever greener. And below us the two
Dagses were flying in the same direction too... and it was
marvelous, because the sky towards which I was flying was a great
visor and the grains on the screen were ever clearer to see. I
could turn myself wherever I wanted...
	A quiet cry was heard from the corner where the box with
Mozie was placed. Snorg crawled thither.
	"Do you want something?"
	"I was going to call you because if one of the Dagses comes
he again would do what I loathe... Will you put me next to Piki?"
	"Did his story upset you?" Snorg asked, staring at Mozie.
Unlike Piki she had all four limbs, though undeveloped and
rudimentary."
	"Not Piki, but Tavegner." She said through tears. "While
Piki was narrating, Tavegner wanted me to translate letter by
letter... and you know, he said..."
	Snorg nodded encouragingly.
	"He said that he wanted to be melted instead of Piki."
	"To be melted?" Snorg did not understand her.
	"Piki has found this out a long time ago." Mozie said. "He
analyses carefully all they say on the visor. Out of all of us
they will choose only those with the best... the most normal
construction and the rest will go to be melted."
	"The way they show it on the screen and say that it is war?"
he asked her for more assurance.
	She nodded.
	"Put me next to Piki..." Mozie said. "Whenever he recounts
some nice dream. I am always beset by melancholy afterwards."
	He took Mozie out of the box with great effort and dragged
her to the basket in which Piki was lying, but immediately after
that he had to crawl back because Tib could not hold herself. He
gave her the hose. When she had finished he held her things with
all his force and lifted himself to his knees.
	"You will not do this any more, will you?" He said, staring
at her. Tib bent her head and looked into his face which was
contorted by exertion. her auricles were sticking out and at that
moment had become quite transparent in the light. They seemed to
him unusually beautiful. He clenched his jaws and caught Tib's
shoulders. He felt that she too was helping him, as she did not
draw back rather did all she could to stay on her feet and be his
support. She continued to look at his face. In her half-open
mouth her teeth could be seen. Snorg felt himself quite big, a
complex giant... He got up and for the first time stood on his
paralysed legs. Now he was even looking at her from a above,
above Tib who was as tall as the sky.
	The others stopped their conversation. He decided to take a
step.  He was feeling his force... and suddenly his foot was
going forward.
	"Tib, I am walking." He cried out, but only a wheeze or a
sob was heard. And suddenly everything was swinging round. Snorg
sprawled on his back.
	III.
	There were two more permanent residents in the Room. Snorg
had no contact with them because both used the same device as he
did. When he was awake they were sleeping. They were called Aspe
and Doulf. In form Aspe looked like Tavegner, but she could not
compare with him in size. Piki said she was very intelligent and
wicked. She never took off her artificial arms and because of
that she played various games with Piki and Tavegner. Snorg very
much wanted to have a talk with her or Doulf, who was lying
immovable, crouching like an embryo with terribly wrinkled skin
like that of a worn out old man, although he was like all the
rest, that is, a little after puberty.
	Tib did not dirty the Room any more, she had learnt to go to
Snorg as soon as she felt that she was about to go to the toilet.
Usually Snorg succeeded in handing her the hose on time. Tib
started to react to him. She would come to that part of the room
where he was lying, stand nearby and look at him. She was
considerably more active than before.
	"I have underrated you, Snorg." Piki once told him. "You are
a decent boy... you succeeded in establishing contact with that
one, the bony..." He never called Tib otherwise than "that bony
one"... "I could not do it though I tried hard... You've changed,
Snorg." He continued. "Before you always looked like a bloody
beast... but now one can see a thought on your face."
	... "beast" meant something rough, brainless, and horribly
powerful... Snorg felt pleased with Piki's opinion and he also
knew why Piki thought so. From that day on Snorg trained his
persistence and will. Ever since he had succeeded in forcing his
insensitive legs to take a step, his will power became the most
important thing to him. He could already take many steps although
this often ended with him falling down dangerously. In order to
stand up he leaned on Tib's body, but he was by now able to stand
up by himself and she only held him with one arm. Sometimes when
he awake he could move his arms without the help of the Dagses
and the installation.
	"It is will power that you see written on my face." He
answered Piki.
	Piki was lying with a tilted head and was looking at him.
	"True." He said. "The features of your face have become
sharper and the corners of your lips are pointing down... You
have to hurry up, Snorg... I have a misgiving that we are not
going to be together for long."
	Piki was betting on his knowledge and his intelligence. For
hours on end he would hang in front of the keys of one of the
visors and write untiringly on the monitor if only some of the
Dagses did not hook off his artificial arm for fun. To learn and
to communicate with the machine was his passion. Snorg was
convinced that in order to make him really happy it was
sufficient to take Piki to the keyboard and place it in such a
way that he could sit in his favorite position for hours on end.
	IV.
	Snorg decided to teach Tib to talk. Piki advised him to put
her hand on his windpipe so that she could feel the vibration of
his voice strings. He taught her things in order to be able to
stand up. But he did it so abruptly that Tib fell. He saw her
lying down for the first time. One of the Dagses took advantage
of the situation and slipped between her legs at once. Snorg
swiped at him with such force that the little one was carried
away and rolled on the floor all covered in blood.
	"Snorg!" Piki shouted. "Stop it! You will batter him to
death."
	"The blood is mine." Snorg said, examining his palm. "I have
cut my hand by touching him."
	Tib recovered and sat up. The Dagses did not approach her
and followed Snorg attentively.
	"On the other hand it is good that you whacked him." Piki
said. "It is just as if I have paid him back too, for Mozie's
sake. The two do with her whatever they want... and whenever they
want."
	Snorg took Tib's hand and placed it on his windpipe.
	"Tib." He said, pointing his finger at her.
	She continued to watch him in silence.
	"Tib." He repeated.
	She seemed frightened.
	He caressed her face, touched her pink ear and was taken
aback - Tib had no Eustachian tube.
	"Piki." He shouted and his jaws began to work normally. "You
are a genius! She is entirely deaf... only by touching... you
were right..."
	He repeated her name again. After some trials her lips moved
and uttered a sound: grhb... constrained and dull. She stood up
and repeated it several times: grdb... grdb... more and more
loudly as she walked around the Room.
	"She will wake Doulf up." Piki said.
	He signaled to her to come nearer. She sat down. He started
repeating her name again.
	"Do you know, this morning I saw the Dagses doing that thing
between themselves." Mozie said. "Morning" was the time when the
sunrays appeared on the floor, penetrating through the windows on
the ceiling. "They did it in turns one to the other..." she
added.
	"It never happens during the day." Piki noted.
	"It may be that they are ashamed of us."
	"The Dagses!" He laughed. "With these foreheads? They sure
are cretins."
	V.
	Tib was making rapid progress. Soon she learned to say her
name, the names of Snorg and Piki and some other words. Piki
thought that her sight was also partly damaged and that the
greater part of the information reached her in a tactile manner.
He admitted, however, that he was not sure if this was a
physiological undevelopment or if Tib's brain was not capable of
correctly processing the data sent by the eye.
	Doulf began to wake up more often. He never changed his
posture on the floor though he moved his eyelids and even talked.
His speech was amusing: he stammered and found words with
difficulty. Snorg wanted to know how Doulf managed without the
aid of devices but Doulf did not understand  the meaning of the
word "will" and for the time being there was nothing to discuss
with him. Once, the Dagses tried to stretch Doulf on the floor,
but it proved that he had coalesced into a bun. Piki declared
that impossible and explained that the only possibility was that
Doulf consisted of coalesced twins, the smaller brother being
stuck on his stomach.
	"On the other hand, Snorg..." Piki said, lifting his only
and artificial limb from the keyboard. "...have you noticed how
fast our life changes? Up to now I thought that it was subjected
to a definite order: you were crawling on the floor, Tib was
standing like a pole, Doulf was talking only when you were lying
motionless. And now?
	"What do you mean, Piki?"
	"We are facing serious changes... Do you remember how it was
before, at the beginning?" Piki was talking almost incoherently.
	Snorg nodded.
	"At the beginning each of us had his own screen which taught
us everything and showed what the world is like and what it
should be... Each of us was entangled in a web of wires which
made our muscles, our organs, the whole organism work...
everything was done in order that we remain alive."
	"I remember as in a fog that it was as you say..." Snorg
interrupted.
	"Exactly! That is it!" Piki looked animated. "They are
dumping us with narcotics or with something else... we forget...
and maybe they want this knowledge to sink deep within us... in
our subconsciousness."
	Snorg noted that Piki looked very bad: his beautiful face
was tired and there were dark circles under his eyes. He was very
pale.
	"You hang in front of this screen for too long. Your
appearance becomes worse and worse..." Piki said.
	Immediately one of the Dagses showed interest in Piki;
Apparently he wanted to move him to another place, but for the
time being he only caressed his face lightly and pulled his hair.
	Piki threw a significant glance at Snorg.
	"You see..." He said. "They understand quite a lot. Not long
ago I myself came to that conclusion... I do not understand why
both of them want to pass for cretins."
	Dags gave Piki a slap in the face and ran to the other end
of the Room. Piki smiled.
	"You think, Snorg, that I am amusing myself... that it is
enough to place Piki in front of the screen, to hook his
artificial arm on, and he will be content, is that so?"
	Snorg was looking perplexed.
	"Sneogg," Tib said. She could already take the hose from the
wall and she no longer made the room dirty, but she still could
not put it back. Snorg helped her and immediately went back to
Piki.
	"Thanks to the visor I learned many things... Do you know,
Snorg, that there are many rooms like ours? Beings, such as we,
are living in them... some with greater, others with lesser
deficiencies. These rooms can be seen because there are not only
screens everywhere but also cameras... we are being watched all
the time... It seems to me that their lenses are somewhere on the
ceiling but they are very difficult to discern. Do you know in
one of these rooms, it is dark blue, there is another Piki
living... but his name is Skorp. We came into contact, he saw me
on the screen and I saw him... he too has an artificial arm..."
	"Maybe we do not deserve to live like those with the normal
body frame as they show them on the screens?" Snorg said.
	Piki flew into a rage.
	"Stop it! They have already manipulated you... You are
feeling guilty." The absurd movement caused a slackening of the
belt of his artificial arm. Snorg fastened them.
	Piki's intelligent eyes continued to flash angrily.
	"They are inculcating this sense of guilt..." He wheezed. "I
still do not know why they are doing it... But I shall
understand.. the way I could extract considerably more out of
these damned screens than I was supposed to learn..."
	Snorg was amazed at the power which emanated from Piki. Up
to now I thought that only I have a will, passed through his
mind. His face must have shown some of the amazement he felt,
which Piki mistook for hesitation and continued to persuade him.
	"Pay attention, Snorg... each program, each bit of
information... what man should be, his arms - such and such, his
legs - such and such, so it is good... and we? and I?... a human
wretch?... am I to blame?... do you understand?... Why do they
repeat it all the time to us?"
	Snorg was silent. He came to the conclusion that Piki was
exceptionally intelligent, that from him he could learn a
different viewpoint,a way to see more than before. Tib sat next
to him and started stroking his face with hers. This tender touch
was something which Snorg liked best.
	"I am afraid that I shall not succeed any more in learning
everything... it seems there is very little time left..." Piki
finished quietly because he saw that Snorg was not listening to
him anymore.
	VI.
	"Piki!" Mozie shouted.
	"Don't... he is sleeping." Snorg said.
	"Then you come and see Aspe." He said. "She is not
breathing."
	For some seconds Snorg had to make a terrific effort in
order to raise himself without any help. At a first glance Aspe
was lying as usual: somewhat bent, her puny hands under her large
crushed face. Snorg looked at her. 
	"She is sleeping as usual."
	"You are wrong, Snorg. Look more carefully."
	It was beyond his power to turn Aspe on her back.
Fortunately the curious Dagses came around. By a joint effort
they managed to lift her. Her body was cold and already
stiffening.
	"Damn it... you are right... it happened a short time ago."
He said in a subdued tone, "and I haven't exchanged even a word
with her... she was sleeping all the time... shall I wake up
Piki?"
	"No, he will understand anyway." She answered. "This death
is not clear to me. It does not correspond to what Piki talks
about," she added.
	Snorg sat with his head hanging. He heard a quiet snuffling
noise behind his back and turned round. Tavegner was crying. The
tears were rolling one after the other down his drooping red
cheeks.
	"Turn me on my back." Mozie asked him. "The skin on my
stomach stings so much. It has probably become inflamed from all
this lying.
	"When you are lying on your stomach you are sort of
protected from the Dagses." He noted.
	"For them it is nothing to turn me on my back whenever they
feel like it." She answered.
	The body of Aspe disappeared when everyone was asleep and
nobody could say how it had happened.
	Seeing that Piki was sitting tiredly in front of the keys
Snorg decided to tell him about his conversation with Mozie. He
adjusted him comfortably and sat next to him.
	"The death of Aspe does not contradict my observations."
Piki answered. "We are subject to the laws of statistics... Look
here: first we have been examined comprehensively and the more
important have been chosen.. . or maybe the others have just
died... then the ones not capable of learning, the total cretins,
have been rejected and we have been put under intensive education
in different ways..."
	Snorg looked at the raging Dagses, then at Piki who
responded with a smile.
	"That is exactly the point." Piki continued. "Aspe died
because their tests were not precise enough... or maybe just
surviving is a test..."
	"And further?" Snorg asked.
	The whole appearance of Piki betrayed complete helplessness.
	"Nothing good, I am sure ... at least for myself I do not
expect anything good..." He said hesitatingly. "Look, Snorg, I
managed to plug into the information system which is servicing
us... I saw different rooms... In each of them there are
people..." At the word "people" he threw a quick glance at Snorg.
"People of our age or slightly younger than us... the very young
are sitting in front of the screens, they are being stuffed with
knowledge, and the ones like us are doing the same as we are
doing: they are living... They are watching... they
communicate... but I did not discover a room with more adult
people... There is a certain information barrier... the system
replies with silence to any direct questions... but soon
everything will become clear... I foresee this, Snorg."
	VII.
	A strong glare blinded Snorg's eyes. For a minute he was not
capable of focusing his sight. He felt that he was not in the
Room. He was lying on something hard in a hall which seemed
enormous. He felt isolated because there was nobody here, none of
his companions. In the other end an unknown man was sitting. He
seemed unusually old, although he was just older than those among
whom Snorg had spent his life. The man noticed Snorg's awakening
and  approached him with an extended hand.
	"My name is Bablioyanis Knoboblow." He said.
	Slowly, with an effort of will Snorg got up from the bed.
	"My congratulations, Snorg. From today you are human. You
proved to be the best..."
	Snorg managed to press his hand. He was quite eager to see
what sort of hand it was when touched.
	"Here is the Certificate from the information center." The
man raised some papers from the table. "And the positive
evaluation of the commission composed of humans... You will
receive an identity document and you can choose a name.
	"Whaat?" Snorg stammered at last.
	The other one looked like a benevolent clerk who was
performing a pleasant, but nevertheless routine action.
	"I examined your results..." Bablioyanis continued to stare
at the papers in front of him. "132 points... it is not bad... I
made 154 points at my test once upon time..." He boasted. "That
Piki approached you very closely, he has 126 points.. but the
lack of limbs... of genitals... is very hard to compensate with
intelligence... Anyway, it is better when someone is chosen with
your complexion and not some cob..."
	"You scoundrel, I feel like smashing your face." Snorg
thought.
	"Piki is a friend of mine." He said that and felt the
familiar tingle in his jaws.
	"It is better not to have friends until you become human."
Bablioyanis hinted. "Do you want to know the results?"
	Snorg was silent and Bablioyanis answered his own question.
	"Mozie 84, Tib 72, Doulf 30, the rest are almost 0: the
Dagses 18 each, Tavegner 12..."
	Snorg felt contempt in his voice and detected in himself a
growing hatred towards this man. It seemed to him that he was
even capable of killing him. 
	"What is going to happen to me?" He asked. His jaw was still
stiff.
	"As a human you have a right of choice... You enter the
normal life of society... a short training... After that you can
continue your education or work... From today a financial account
worth 400 credits is opened for you. These are due to everyone
who becomes human. Personally, I do not advice you to have any
plastic surgery before you assure yourself of a constant income.
In the long run the auricles are not so important." 
	He threw a significant glance at Snorg. 
	"Later you can find something special... There is always a
great choice."
	Snorg felt a cold shiver on his neck: Tib stood up before
his eyes.
	"What is going to happen to the others now?" He spoke with
pain.
	"Ah, yes... you have the right to know that, too."
Bablioyanis was losing his patience. "A considerably greater
number of individuals are born than can become human beings
later... They will be used as material for transplantations. One
can choose from them quite decent ears... eyes... liver. Although
from some of them even such things cannot be taken. Tavegner, for
instance, will only be good for tissue material."
	"That is inhuman!" Snorg hissed through clenched lips.
	"What is inhuman!?" Bablioyanis became red. "It was inhuman
to start a war... Now a hundred percent of the newborns have the
same physical deficiencies, three quarters with physiological...
and on principle only artificial insemination is practiced. You
can be angry with our forefathers."
	Snorg did not look convinced and so Bablioyanis continued to
explain:
	"The number of births have been increased to a maximum in
order to increase the probability of having individuals close to
the norm," He looked at Snorg inquisitively. "As for the rest...
Well, this is the cheapest way to produce material... Because
even the selected are not quite normal, are they, Snorg?"
	But Snorg did not express agreement.
	"I have been working in this sphere for seven years..."
Bablioyanis continued. "And I am certain that this is precisely
the only true way."
	"You also are not perfect, Bablioyanis, you drag your left
leg and your face is partly paralysed." Snorg threw in.
	"I know it is evident." The other retorted without surprise.
"But I am working hard and I have already saved credits for a
whole new arm... for transplantation."
	VIII.
	Tibsnorg Pikimozie started work in the central archive for
biological material. He continued to study at the same time. His
salary was quite high, but after the deductions for the past
services he had received, not much remained. Expenses for food
and the rent of the dark little room absorbed the rest, so that
at the end he was left with a symbolic sum. He ate synthetic food
in the general canteen. At least it was better than feeding from
a system. In the canteen he always met the same people, which was
boring, but he found out that for the time being he could not eat
in a more expensive place where one could go at different times.
He never talked to the people he met in the canteen. They were
all older than he was. Several people came to have their meals in
wheelchairs but most were able to stand. He observed them
carefully and did not discover a single man with a completely
regular body - everyone had some deficiency.
	Tibsnorg was very lucky: if he had got less than 120 points
he would not have been able to continue with his studies. He
preferred to work, however, because he was afraid that he would
be attacked by memories in his free time. He had not yet
forgotten at whose expense he could rise up and manage to
overcome the paralysis of his body. As a human he had the right
to know the truth and besides the pictures from the computer
showing landscapes, men and women with correct figures and
animals living a long time ago, besides the pictures depicting
how the world should look like or how it had looked like in the
old times, he had the right to know what it looked like at
present. After every five working days he could go out onto the
surface and from a high panoramic tower watch the surroundings.
It was a gray-brown desert untiringly traversed by massive grey
transporters carrying the produce of numerous mines. He knew that
these machines were driven by people who could not have children
because the radioactive level in the desert was too high. One
such driver came to the canteen once. His appearance was normal
and he earned three times more, but still, Tibsnorg would not
change places with him.
	The tests which Tibsnorg underwent with the first money he
earned showed that he was capable of reproduction, though in all
probability only in a passive way, that is by the taking of
semen. Soon he mastered the principles of the computer and got a
modest promotion. His new functions actually meant control over
the decisions of the special department in the information center
in respect of the choice of appropriate material for
transplantation or the individuals to be preserved. The decisions
of the center were clear, exact and logical, and in general no
corrections were needed. For each discovered case of negligence
an additional award was provided and Tibsnorg therefore worked
very carefully. Material was taken both for the ordinary
hospitals and for private persons who paid for the removal of
their deficiencies. There was a lot of work: every day several
dozens of applications and their resolutions, which he had to get
acquainted with and ponder over. Soon he gained experience and
began to have more spare time which he used for practice with the
machine and for accumulating information.
	He remembered that Piki used to say that information was a
privilege which should be used at every possibility. He learnt
that the decision whether to become a human being or not depended
simply on the sum of points calculated by the system on the basis
of one's tests and evaluations. This opened great opportunities
for mistakes. He learned also that the chance to become human he
owed personally to Bablioyanis, who had changed the center's
decision to assign the human characteristics to Piki. In fact the
number of points obtained by Piki for his intellectual
capabilities was higher than Snorg's sum for physical data,
correct body frame and intellect. When he saw on the screen that
the abilities of Tib were evaluated as zero his mouth uttered a
horrible curse. He had always been intrigued by the daylight
penetrating into the Room and now he knew that this had been a
lamp, shining in the visible part of the spectrum and partly in
the ultraviolet, which they had periodically switched on and off.
The Room was situated deep underground. He had only once glimpsed
the sun on the surface: a light grey disc which could be just
discerned through the thick fog. At least now it was better than
during the time when the earth had been permanently covered with
snow and the sun had never succeeded in penetrating the clouds.
	IX.
	Tibsnorg Pikimozie's orientation in the work of the
registration system of the state and the movement of biological
material was growing better and better. Tib, Piki and the rest
were registered under numbers AT 44567743 to AT 44567749 and they
didn't have other names any more. Soon after that an eye, a nose
and a kidney were taken for a cosmetic operation from No.
44567746, i.e. from Mozie. In fact Tibsnorg voiced his opposition
to the use of No. 44567746 for this operation but his opinion was
overruled by the rest the experts. The next was Dags with No.
44567738. The operation had a lethal outcome. The gullet with the
stomach, the liver, the intestines, the two hands and the outer
genitals without the semen glands were taken from Dags. The rest
was useless and that is why only the skin, the muscles and the
bones of the arms were preserved in the tissue store and No.
44567748 was deleted from the list.
	The value of each organ was determined on the basis of the
expenses for the support of that individual. The simplest way was
to delete the number at the reception of the organs - in this
case the expenses for the support of the material with the
appropriate recalculation were simply divided among all the
incoming organs. For other types of transplantations one had to
resort to more complicated and intricate calculations and
Tibsnorg admitted that only the system could really cope with it.
	"It's interesting what my number would have been had it not
been for Bablioyanis?" He thought. "I wonder if I was going to be
near Tib at least."
	He no longer sat alone in the canteen. He had begun
conversing with the driver who worked on the transportation of
the material from the mines. His name was Abraham Dringenbom and
he was a heavy, robust man. He was very proud of his name which
he had managed to dig up in the historical library. Dringenbom
had a coarse and thundery voice and talked very loudly, which
embarrassed Tibsnorg because usually silence prevailed in the
canteen. It seemed to him that everyone was looking at them,
though there was no reason for that as they did not arouse
anybody's interest, and besides, a number of the diners present
had more or less damaged hearing.
	"Tibsnorg Pikimozie?" Thundered Dringenbom. "Strange
names... why have you chosen exactly these?"
	"I embody a number of living creatures." Snorg said quietly.
	"Hm..." Murmured Dringenbom. "Is that what you have got into
your head? It is not good to commit yourself much to your
companions of The Room." He changed the theme suddenly. "Do you
know that today the average life expectancy has reached 24 years?
I can't believe this... it is too good... Anyway, I think that
they are inflating the medical data a little in order not to
spoil our mood."
	"How do they calculate it?" Tibsnorg became interested.
"Does it include all born individuals or only the people?"
	"What nonsense! The people, of course only the people. Those
born alive are just one in ten, aren't they?"
	Tibsnorg examined Dringenbom carefully. It is true, he was
wearing a grey jacket and trousers and the body could not be
seen, but apart from the operated rabbit's lip which could hardly
be seen under the grayish bristles, nothing appeared to be a
deviation from the norms.
	Dringenbom shuddered as if he had read his thoughts. 
	"I had warts with disgusting long hairs all over my body...
they have already been operated on... But the greatest difference
is in my trousers." Dringenbom frowned. "You, Tibsnorg, don't you
worry for me... I'll buy such a... That I am going to make at
least five living children... I have already accumulated 1620
credits..." he added, thinking that Tibsnorg did not believe him.
	1620 credits was an incredible amount of money. With his
salary Tibsnorg could save 22-24 credits for a decade. With so
many credits he could probably buy the whole Tib for himself,
naturally as biological material. Her slender, straight figure
stood in front of his eyes ever more often in a sea of colored
hair. His dreams were invariably linked with The Room. His mates
showed up and disappeared. Tib however was permanently in them.
	Tibsnorg found a better flat with an outside view. Living
houses on the surface were rare. He was surprised that the new
room, slightly smaller than the previous and with only two rather
than three visors, cost only 8 credits more. It became clear to
him only when he understood what the radioactive level in the
houses on the surface was. The windows ,however, compensated for
many things. He spent hours on end looking at the impenetrable
lead-colored clouds over the grey-brown barren hills. The tower
could be seen on very clear days and with powerful binoculars.
The sight, though not so beautiful as the synthesized one,
attracted him with an overwhelming force; And maybe that was why
Tibsnorg wished to become a driver in the external transport. The
high salary was a reason also, because he could rapidly save more
money.
	At the transport service he was received by a man in a
wheelchair. He was almost impossible to see behind the bureau,
but there was something in his appearance which put the visitor
on the alert. When Tibsnorg handed in his application the other
one looked at him inquisitively.
	"Are you neutral or sexual?"
	"Neutral.." Tibsnorg lied, because he knew that this was an
obligatory condition for getting the job. The clerk politely
nodded and with a disproportionally small hand wrote something on
the keyboard. He looked at the screen and his features stretched
tight. Even before he opened his mouth it was clear that the
conversation had ended.
	"You cannot waste your capabilities in such a way. This is
really deadly work." The clerk turned with his chair, showing his
back to him and putting an end to the conversation.
	Dringenbom almost hit Tibsnorg when he heard about that.
Angrily he took the counter out of his pocket - a small pink
piece of some material.
	"Look here, you fool!" He was pointing his massy finger at
the plate. When Dringenbom got angry his hands started to tremble
irresistibly. His thumb was jerking around the pink rectangle.
"When it becomes red I shall kick the bucket..." the pale eyes of
Dringenbom sparked on his tanned face which was now quite red. He
made so much money that he could permit himself a tan.
	"Where are you pushing for? To the other world?" He could
not calm down. 
	"You have money for the artificial sun." Tibsnorg added
quietly.
	"So what, fool?! What does that mean? You can have women as
much as you want... even if in your pants there is nothing more
than testicles. The testicles are the most precious... all the
rest... all the meat costs no more than 60-800 credits."
	"Physically I am normal." Tibsnorg faltered. "This is some
underdevelopment of the nerve endings."
	"It means it is even cheaper... when the women attack you...
they will tear you to pieces... that is life!... boy..."
	Tibsnorg thought for a moment whether to tell him about Tib
but decided not to and so the conversation ended.
	Ab Dringenbom was the only man with whom Tibsnorg maintained
constant contact, if the exchange of commonplace phrases with
occasional table-companions was not considered. In comparison
with his former life in The Room he was now living like a
recluse. He looked for no other contact with people, living only
with his memories. The women he met in the canteen, and in the
corridors could not compare to her: they were ugly or their
deficiencies were too open to see. Actually according to the
instructions he started wearing a red stripe, meaning that he was
neutral, but it did not in the least change his behavior. He
maybe became a little more harsh with the women who now besieged
him more insistently. Maybe if he wore two stripes, meaning full
capabilities, what Dringenbom talked about would happen, but for
now he lived more or less calmly.
	After several days Ab brought some bad news:
	"I have cancer." He said, constrained, his eyes pinned to
the plate of soup, tasteless and slimy, but with a full set of
vitamins and microelements.
	"So what." Tibsnorg shrugged. "Half the population has
cancer."
	"In phase "C" already." Dringenbom added.
	"But you have 1620 credits... you will manage." Snorg did
not look very worried.
	"1648 credits." Dringenbom corrected him. "But it is still
nothing. They will be enough for nothing... Mine is of such a
sort that it spreads quite rapidly. At least 1500 will go for
treatment... and I shall never succeed in buying a cucumber."
	Tibsnorg was irritated by his vulgarity.
	"Why have they let it reach phase "C"? It has progressed
quite a lot. You can lodge a complaint against the medical
department."
	"I am to blame..." Dringenbom said. "I did not take the
tests because I was afraid, as a matter of fact I wanted to save
more money before my counter turned completely red.
	"But you, as any man, have a right to free basic medical
assistance..."
	"Thank you..." The eyes of Dringenbom became dull and
remote, his speech showed clearly a defect due to the bad
execution of the rabbit-lip operation. "They will retain the
brain, the eyes and part of the nervous system while the rest
will be cut  and burned because they'll say that it is too
infectious to use as transplant. Then they'll make an operating
unit out of me at an excavating machine in the mine or at the
conveyor..."
	"I think they know how to treat it in a different way, not
only with an exchange of the infected organs... but they do not
talk about it on economic grounds... then the need for
transplantation will fall sharply." Tibsnorg said and thought:
1648 credits are almost the full value of Tib's body. And Ab will
be finished with by all means... his badge is too dark... How
many organs will he buy? Twelve?... Fourteen?... In the long run
he will lose his body again and for him this is worse than death.
How could he get hold of these credits?
	Dringenbom was looking at him, but did not say a word.
	X.
	Dringenbom changed after that. He became more secretive and
uncertain. When Tibsnorg told him about Tib he accepted this
calmly but with disapproval. He thought that this was absolutely
senseless and that Tibsnorg had to look for a wife amid the
people rather than in the biological material. In the long run
the whole of Tib cost too much. He would certainly have to save
for her for the rest of his life and during that time others
would buy her in parts.
	On the other hand Dringenbom agreed to give Tibsnorg a ride.
Ab drove one of the big trucks which transported material from
the nearby open mine.
	The truck travelled a comparatively long distance along a
dusty road between hills covered with grey ash which drifted away
in the wind.
	"A dozen inhalations of this ash is sufficient to put you
down." Dringenbom grinned with his asymmetric mouth.
	Tibsnorg looked at him horrified.
	"Inside, the air is filtered so that the number of breaths
increases to several thousand..." Dringenbom smiled.
	The open mine was actually the remnants of an old city out
of which the metal was being extracted. A gigantic excavating
machine had cut into a wrinkled ferro-concrete construction of a
former living house or factory. Dringenbom waited for his load.
Finally the truck was filled with ferro-concrete, ash and various
other pieces.
	"I make four to five runs a day. I always get the optimal
route - the one with the lowest degree of radiation from the
information center... Conditions often change here... whenever
the wind comes on, or when it rains or snows."
	Dringenbom pointed his finger at the small screen.
	"They constantly measure the radiation level. Today it is
low, but sometimes it tinkles so that you have no desire to start
the engine. On such days we are given two or three credits as an
additional bonus."
	On the way back he let Tibsnorg drive the lorry. This meant
only giving out commands as the truck was actually driven by a
processor.
	"In an emergency the computer would take the truck back..."
Dringenbom said. "If you faint or if you suddenly die... the
material mustn't be lost."
	A lonely house stood half-sunk in ash on one of the hills.
It had survived intact with the roof, the trees and the windows.
	"I would rather live in this house..." Ab said. "Not in the
city."
	"On the surface."
	"Your room is also on the surface, Tibsnorg... clearly one
can live with the appropriate defence..."
	XI.
	At last there came the day which sometime had to come. The
day which Tibsnorg had imagined in the most diverse variations
but which he had never thought would find him so unprepared. He
worked as he did each day in front of the screen of the visor.
His savings amounted to 48 credits and 320 more in unused credit.
On the screen there appeared the current problem expecting
solution. The row of orderly green letters and figures announced
precisely: No. AT 44567744 is to submit arms, legs and torso
together with the neck to one client and the head to another. The
brain is subject to annihilation and the number is to be dropped
out.
	This one should have labored hard and for a long time to get
such a body, he thought with irony, and the other beneficiary
should certainly have been taken in by the tender face and the
blue eyes in the catalogue... and pretty much if she accepts the
deafness. Or maybe she is so rich that she can afford to buy ears
from someone else...
	"Scoundrels... Dirty scoundrels..." He repeated, and bit his
fingers. He had known for a long time that this would happen and
now he could not decide himself. It had always seemed to him that
he would succeed in saving more credits. He had to take a quick
decision in a real and not in some imaginary situation.
	"Scoundrels... Dirty scoundrels..." He was murmuring. 
	He asked from the system time for deliberation so as to
consider the possibility of selling the whole of AT 44567744 to
one client which would be more profitable. He got up from the
table, went out and locked the chamber. He was already able to
walk well and rather fast. The concentration of will at each step
had turned into a habit long time ago. The biological materials
storehouse was not far. He had prior information on where she was
held. The system had given him all the codes which facilitated
admission. The dreamy keeper at the heavy metal gate caused no
difficulties. Tibsnorg was in a sweat from nerves. The lift moved
terribly slow. At last there was the storey he needed. The
corridor with dozens of identical doors seemed endless. He
doubted all the time  whether he was acting correctly. He had in
mind something unheard of. At last the door with No. 44567744. It
opened automatically. One more corridor in which the biological
material was displayed on the wall: tens of bodies with different
height and different degree of deformation. All without clothes,
all entangled in electrodes and wires. At the beginning he
started to count nervously then he noticed that each stand had a
number. Quite a long time passed until he reached her. She stood
with her eyes open. Their eyes met. She recognized him. In a few
seconds he unfastened the wires, spending more time on the belts
which fixed her arms and legs.
	She pressed toward him immediately, touching him with her
face.
	"You came back, Sneogg, I knew it..." she murmured quietly.
	"Quickly, Tib... Quickly. " He  dragged her by the hand.
	He knew that her muscles were in a very good shape as the
result of systematic stimulation - nobody would buy atrophied
muscles.
	"Piki..." She showed him something tiny, twined in a coil of
wires.
	They set him free as well. Piki woke up immediately.
	"Leave me, Snorg, it is useless..." He said.
	Snorg took him with one hand while with the other he
continued dragging Tib. He only rested in the lift.
	"And what are you going to do now?" Piki asked.
	Tib was snuggling in Snorg all the time.
	"I know all the codes of the system..." Snorg said. "I am
relying on the surprise. The chance is six per cent..."
	The man on duty looked at them absentmindedly. It did not
occur to him that two of them were nothing but material. He
punched the code given to him by Snorg into the system, looked at
the screen and nodded to them to leave.
	When they came out of the storehouse they almost started
running. Snorg stopped a small automatic barrow and they all got
into it. It was quite a long way to Dringenbom's room even with a
vehicle. All the time sinister silence reigned in the corridor.
	They found him in the room; he was still sleeping. 
	One stroke - and the camera sadly hung on the wire. One more
pull - the wire was quite torn up.
	"Ab, get up..." Snorg shook his shoulder. "I have Tib here.
Are you coming with us?"
	Dringenbom rubbed his sleepy eyes. He looked at them.
	"I can't stand this "Ab"... my name is Abraham..." He
retorted. "She is really nice," He added, looking at Tib. "No, I
am not coming with you... take my pass and knock my head with
something." He continued. "Best with this book... but so that you
spill some of my blood... and run as far away as you can from the
city. This is your only chance."
	"I am going to tie you up in addition... This way it will
look more convincing."
	All this took quite a long time, because Snorg was afraid
lest he should wound him. Eventually Abraham was lying
unconscious, tied to his bed. Even some blood ran down from a
small scratch on his forehead.
	They had approached the hall with the transport vehicles
when the whole corridor was filled with the whine of the sirens.
The last stage began. Red lights were flashing every several
meters. The cameras mounted in the corridor were constantly
turning around. They managed to get into the hall before the gate
was bolted. Snorg recognized Dringenbom's truck. He shoved the
card into the automatic device at the entrance and it was
activated. The three stepped into the square of the lift and in a
moment were in the car. Snorg drove it out of the hall. The day
happened to be gloomy and the bank of clouds was hanging low. He
switched the visor on. It was just time for the news.
	"... AN INCREDIBLE THEFT OF BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL ESTIMATED AT
MORE THAN 4500 CREDITS. SUCH A THING HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE.
THE CRIMINAL, FOR WHOM AN INTENSIVE SEARCH HAS BEEN MOUNTED IS AN
EMPLOYEE OF SECTOR 'DG' OF THE ARCHIVES FOR BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL;
HIS NAME IS TIBSNORG PIKIMOZIE. THE OPERATIONS GROUP OF THE SELF-
DEFENCE FORCES IS TAKING PART IN THE ACTION. ITS PARTICIPATION IS
A GUARANTEE THAT THE STOLEN STOCK WILL BE RESTORED UNHARMED AND
THE CULPRIT WILL BE CAUGHT IN DUE TIME."
	The screen was filled with pictures taken by the stationary
cameras and showing Snorg carrying Piki and accompanied by Tib.
	Snorg whistled between his teeth.
	"This operations group consists of several hundred men in an
incredible physical form, whole bundles of trained muscles..." He
snapped.
	Piki looked away from the screen.
	"I think we have no chance." He said. "But I am thankful
that I could see this..." He pointed with his eyes to the window.
"I had lost all sense of time, in these cables... injection to
fall asleep... injection to wake up... and so on for ever and
ever."
	Tib hadn't stopped looking through the window all the time
since they had left the hall with the trucks.
	"Fortunately, there was one of my height opposite me and we
could talk." Piki continued. "He talked with Tib as well, so that
she did not deaden completely... I could not talk to her because
she could not see my mouth and she could not hear. You know, she
has become even more clever... at least that is what the other
one said."
	Snorg drove the truck to the loader.
	Piki carefully watched the mighty jaws selecting pieces from
the ruins of the old-time cathedral.
	"Is this where people lived at that time?" He asked.
	Snorg nodded.
	Piece after piece of the construction was thrown into the
carriage. 
	"So that is how people lived before the war..." He murmured
to himself. "They probably felt very lonely in such scattered
buildings."
	The truck was loaded and Snorg moved back.
	"Are we going back?" Piki asked anxiously.
	Snorg nodded.
	"I have a plan." He said.
	The vehicle was cruising at maximum speed.
	"Tib, put on the gas mask, and you too, Piki..." he said and
nodded toward the drawer. However, she did not hear, because he
had talked facing the visor and she had not seen the movement of
his lips. He repeated it looking at her. Tib took out the
overalls and took care of herself and Piki. She did it in an
unexpectedly quick and clever manner. Snorg put on his mask
himself. They approached the hill where the solitary surviving
house was standing. Snorg stopped the truck and they descended to
ground level with the lift. Snorg's counter was rattling. Tib was
holding Piki like a child. Everyone had protective clothes from
transparent material. Because Piki was short, Tib wrapped him
several times. They had to go on foot for a much longer distance
than they had done up to now. In addition, they had to wade
knee-high in ash. They looked for some time at the diminishing
silhouette of the truck which was retreating, guided by the
automatic control. Before long it hid beyond the horizon. They
started on their way, walking slowly and painfully, drowning in
the loose sand. At last they reached the ruins in a sweat. Tib
was not so tired because her muscles were in good condition
thanks to the electronic stimulation in the storehouse.
	They found shelter in the ruins. The entrance and the solid
wooden gate were still standing. Snorg continued to believe that
they would succeed, while Piki thought that they had made a big
mistake in leaving the truck. He insisted that they had to run as
far away as possible from the city and its operative groups.
Maybe persecution could be avoided if they managed to get
sufficiently far away. But Snorg couldn't decide to cut off
completely from the city and adopt another plan. Even now he felt
alone.
	None of the three took off the protective clothing because
there was ash all around and it could not be wiped away. Tib sat
and looked at Snorg:
	"I was sure you were going to come back for me..." She said
slowly.
	He smiled vaguely.
	"It was a dream... I have left the Room in a dream. Such
light... and those unknown things around, so many... then they
put me There next to Piki... how nice it is that you came..." she
was speaking and all the time she was looking at his mouth.
	"You can't take me." Piki interrupted her coarsely. "You are
now certainly going to start with the injections... really... at
your side there springs a syringe with a needle, bam - and you
are asleep... bam - and you are awake again... Like an
automation. If it wasn't for those carts which pass along the
line every day... six-wheel carts... They were always drawn by
the same people with the same grey clothes. And they always threw
someone in such a cart... they drew him out... Rarely, someone
would come back... but always in bandages... underneath, almost
nothing could be seen. Each time it was one of us. It was
difficult to keep close contact because every second one in the
line was asleep. You couldn't shout either, they would inject you
immediately... However, despite all that we managed to
communicate... along the line... so that you could be heard
without making the syringe spring up... it was worst if there
happened to be a deaf one in the line... Then, those in the grey
clothes would always take off the bandages... and they were
usually armless, without legs.. or something else. The worst time
was when the cart would slow down in front of you... you would
think it was stopping... Not that they were sadists... those with
the grey clothes, it was just that the wheels of the cart were
old... They tried to draw them steadily but sometimes the wheels
would wobble and the cart... But I do not want to be taken back
to that case... I have nothing left anyway..."
	"With these carts they always took out three at a time." Tib
interrupted him. She had followed Piki's face for quite some
time. "And usually they brought back two, sometimes one..." When
Tib was worried she started to stammer. "I remember how they
returned Mozie... only one eye flashed from the bandages... but
it was she... Kolfi said that she had returned... and described
to me how they had taken her bandages down."
	"Stop it." Piki interrupted her again. "I don't want to hear
again about how she looked at that time... didn't they take her
for a second time... and she did not come back."
	"Mozie?" Snorg was astonished. "Yes... of course... That had
probably happened during another shift." He murmured to himself.
"Hell, what a risk it was... they could have taken her as well...
but fortunately it happened during my shift... such luck..."
	"What luck?" She asked hoarsely.
	"That you are here with me... before, I missed a lot of
things..."
	"I could not stand like that... and the shivers I felt in my
muscles and the tiredness they caused... and the talking with
Kolfi because I could not see Piki's mouth ... and in any case
sooner or later I was going to go mad... I haven't gone mad but I
was quite near it."
	All of them talked and interrupted each other. Piki
interrupted Tib unceremoniously in the middle of some word and
she understood this only after some time had passed and stopped
talking. Then she cut in and began to talk with a stammer. It was
difficult to describe so many days in several hours. Then Piki
switched off and looked at the heavy clouds which were crawling
low over their heads. He seemed to be concentrating on something
and on his face one could read a kind of admiration, which would
probably have amazed Snorg, had he looked at him at least once.
	"Stop making a noise with the plastic material," Piki told
them, finally. Both turned their eyes on him. 
	"Listen, Snorg... I am talking to you because that one, the
lean, one, only gazes at your conceited face.." He continued and
his voice sounded so pleasant that Snorg smiled.
	"I foresee... I know that sometimes I am going to fly to
those clouds... high over the earth on my wings... and that is
going to be the best part of my life."
	"They might make a driving unit out of you for some
machine... because your body is good for nothing, but your brain
is oh-ho-ho... however, first they have to catch us and this is
not so easy... no camera saw where we got off the truck."
	"I wonder what is going to happen when they catch us, of
which, regrettably, I am sure." Piki could not be satisfied with
these explanations.
	"Close your mouth, Piki!" It was the first time Snorg had
heard such a tone from Tib. "You seem to dream about the
injections. There..."
	"I am only saying what I think."
	"It is worthwhile to discuss it." Snorg said after a while.
"I think the danger is not so great, because this is an
unprecedented case... we shall all remain alive though on a
different basis... They will do nothing to me because the
preservation of life is a fundamental right of every human. Even
more... The law says in addition, that once someone has been
promoted to human status, he would always remain such, so that
from an employee of the Biological materials Archive I cannot be
made into a conservant.... Piki's situation is not so bad
either... his dream will come true: he will operate an excavating
machine. It is unavoidable that they use him in such a manner in
order to prove completely that it has been necessary to make such
an effort to catch us."
	"And me, Sneogg?" Tib asked, her gaze intent on his lips.
	"You, only your destiny," he turned his face straight to
her, "would be tragic... a woman has asked for your body, another
- for your head and face, a rich woman and probably with some
merit... But I prefer to die rather than permit this."
	Piki listened silently and said nothing more. He stared at
the sky and at the clouds which were floating there. When the
twilight of the day was replaced by the dark of the night they
fell asleep, huddled together, hungry and freezing with cold.
	XII.
	They woke up together in the dusky, cool dawn. Tib was still
talkative as never before. This was a surprise for him. In his
imagination she was beautiful but not particularly intelligent.
He found out that not only he, the selected human bearing the
name of Tibsnorg Pikimozie, but all of then had developed
mentally.
	And if they had more time, maybe they all?...
	During that time they all expected Dringenbom to come. Snorg
relied on Ab's arrival to bring them food with his huge truck and
to help them decide what to do next. He was their last hope. They
waited for a long time, staring at the column of vehicles moving
in the distance and carrying materials to the city. Hunger
tormented them ever more strongly. The yellow sun shone through
the clouds around midday. They were flooded by dazzling light.
Tib and Snorg stood together in the sunbeams and looked at their
shadows. The sun was so clear for the first time in their lives.
	"If they make a machine-operating system out of me shall I
see this often?" Piki asked, looking through the window.
	"I don't know... maybe they will leave your eyes after
all..." Snorg said, hesitating. "You are not recognized as human,
therefore they will consider your brain as material... only the
people, when they lose their bodies because of some incurable
disease, have the right to keep their eyes, but it is possible
that they will install you in a large excavating machine like
that one... and there they leave their eyes... with your
intellect... nothing is known..."
	His voice was drowned by a strong thunder of motors, which
certainly did not come from the trucks. Snorg paled, realizing
that Dringenbom would never bring them food. The roar got louder
and they felt the earth trembling. Heavy multi-rotor flying
machines of the operations group were landing around the house.
	"One... two... three..." Snorg counted and felt his jaws
grow stiff. Tib pressed close to him with all her power.
	"They are coming after all... It means all this was
useless..." he whispered looking at the landing armored machines.
	Tiny figures in grey uniforms appeared around them in
helmets and armored jackets. They jumped briskly from the
machines and began to crawl to the house. He noticed that they
had weapons and some of them even had lasers.
	"Are all those cannons for me?" He thought with irony. "Are
they about to ray down the whole house?"
	He did not even try to count the commandos. They were at
least several dozen. They took their position with lightning
speed.
	"Tibsnorg Pikimozie!" A loud voice bellowed suddenly. "You
have no chance! Surrender! Give back the stolen biological
material. This will be considered a mitigating circumstance. Your
accomplice, Abraham Dringenbom, has been caught."
	Tib was looking at him insistently. She had obviously sensed
the change in him.
	He repeated what was said on the loudspeaker, but so that
she could see his mouth.
	"Tibsnorg Pikimozie!" the loudspeaker declared again.
	Piki was silent, his eyes betraying horror.
	"Scoundrels... Dirty scoundrels..." Snorg repeated, still
unmoving in the middle of the room, squeezing Tib.
	"All we want is just to live..." She whispered and looked at
him.
	"...This will be considered..." The loudspeaker was yelling
when they heard steps at the gate. Suddenly, a powerful explosion
smashed the gate to pieces. Two commandos rushed in and took
position on the ground, aiming at Snorg.
	"A good schooling..." He managed to think.
	They were incredibly clever. For a tenth of a second a third
appeared at the still smoking opening. A jacket with a winged
colored monster painted on it reached his tights. He stood
motionless with wide-spread muscular legs while his outstretched
hands held a long-barreled revolver, aiming it at Snorg. Instead
of a nose he had a black hole. His drawn lips bared his teeth and
together with the missing eyelids imparted a deadly expression to
his face.
	"You have won, beast..." Snorg thought. "So you will have
the chance to buy a new face... except if they consider first
those lying on the floor..." Snorg turned his eyes down towards
the two commandos. The others followed his gaze. More and more
commandos burst into the room through the shattered gate and
immediately threw themselves onto the floor. The first one, as if
understanding Snorg's thought, embraced the positioned soldiers
with his eyes again. Suddenly he stood stiffly and for another
moment or two continued to look at Snorg, his eyes devoid of
eyelids under transparent plastic arches.
	And though none of the three had moved a shot roared out and
the body of Tib, who at the last moment had shielded him, fell
lifeless in Snorg's arms. He felt something squeezing his neck.
He did not hear the second shot. The yellow flame before his eyes
turned into a row of small bright spots and died down.