Yoo Retoont, Sneogg. Ay Noo

6

“Pieckyy!…” called Moosy.

“Don’t, he’s sleeping,” said Snorg.

“Then come here and look at Aspe,” she insisted. “She’s not breathing.”

Getting up by himself took Snorg several seconds of excruciating effort. Aspe, it turned out, was lying as she usually did-a little twisted, her withered hands tucked underneath her large, flat face. Snorg examined her.

“She’s sleeping, the way she always does.”

“You’re wrong, Snorg. Look again.”

Turning Aspe’s face toward the ceiling was beyond Snorg’s strength. Fortunately the meddlesome Dagses were nearby. The three together were able to move her. Her body was cold and stiff.

“Damn, you’re right… It must have happened some time ago,” he said in a hollow voice. “And I never exchanged a word with her. She was always asleep… Should we wake Piecky?”

“No. He’ll find out anyway,” Moosy said. “I don’t understand her death. It doesn’t go with what Piecky told us.”

Snorg sat with his face in his hands. Hearing a low, incoherent noise behind him, he turned. It was Tavegner crying. Tears, one after the other, were streaming down his red cheeks.

“Turn me over on my back,” Moosy asked Snorg. “The skin on my stomach burns. I must have bed sores.”

“On your stomach, you’re safer from the Dagses,” he said.

“When they want it, it’s no problem for them to turn me over.”

Aspe’s body disappeared while everyone slept, so no one knew how it was done.

Seeing Piecky sitting haggard at the keyboard, Snorg decided to tell him what Moosy had said. He put Piecky in a more comfortable position, sat beside him, and told him.

“Aspe’s death doesn’t contradict what I’ve concluded,” Piecky answered. “The laws that govern us operate statistically. It’s simple: first they tested us thoroughly and selected those who were viable, or possibly the others died… Then they discarded those who couldn’t learn, the complete cretins. The rest they taught intensively, using various means…”

Snorg watched the capering Dagses, then looked at Piecky, who returned the look with a smile . “Exactly,” Piecky went on. “Aspe died because the tests they ran weren’t perfect. Unless continued survival is itself a test.”

“What comes next?” asked Snorg.

Piecky’s shrug was with his whole body.

“Nothing good, I’m sure… In any case, nothing good for me.” He hesitated. “You see, Snorg, I was able to penetrate the information system that serves us. I saw other rooms, many of them. In each one, the people are our age, or younger. The very young ones sit in front of viewscreens and fill themselves with information. The ones our age do what we are doing now: living, observing, conversing… I haven’t yet found a room with people who are older than us… There’s a kind of information barrier. The system doesn’t answer questions about that… But it will end soon, this. I feel it, Snorg.”