Robert A Heinlein - Methuselahs Children

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2024-12-03 0 0 747.39KB 140 页 5.9玖币
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Methuselah’s Children
PART I
„MARY SPERLING, you’re a fool not to marry him!“
Mary Sperling added up her losses and wrote a check before answering,
„There’s too much difference in age.“ She passed over her credit voucher. „I
shouldn’t gamble with you-sometimes I think you’re a sensitive.“
„Nonsense! You’re just trying to change the subject. You must be nearly thirty
and you won’t be pretty forever.“
Mary smiled wryly. „Don’t I know it!“
„Bork Vanning can’t be much over forty and he’s a plus citizen. You should
jump at the chance.“
„You jump at it. I must run now. Service, Ven.“
„Service,“ Ven answered, then frowned at the door as it contracted after Mary
Sperling. She itched to know why Mary would not marry a prime catch like
the Honorable Bork Vanning and was almost as curious as to why and where
Mary was going, but the custom of privacy stopped her.
Mary had no intention of letting anyone know where she was going. Outside
her friend’s apartment she dropped down a bounce tube to the basement,
claimed her car from the robopark, guided it up the ramp and set the controls
for North Shore. The car waited for a break in the traffic, then dived into the
high-speed stream and hurried north. Mary settled back for a nap.
When its setting was about to run out, the car beeped for instructions; Mary
woke up and glanced out. Lake Michigan was a darker band of darkness on
her right. She signaled traffic control to let her enter the local traffic lane; it
sorted out her car and placed her there, then let her resume manual control.
She fumbled in the glove compartment.
The license number which traffic control automatically photographed as she
left the controlways was not the number the car had been wearing.
She followed a side road uncontrolled for several miles, turned into a narrow
dirt road which led down to the shore, and stopped. There she waited, lights
out, and listened. South of her the lights of Chicago glowed; a few hundred
yards inland the controlways whined, but here there was nothing but the little
timid noises of night creatures. She reached into the glove compartment,
snapped a switch; the instrument panel glowed, uncovering other dials
behind it. She studied these while making adjustments. Satisfied that no
radar watched her and that nothing was moving near her, she snapped off
the instruments, sealed the window by her and started up again.
What appeared to be a standard Camden speedster rose quietly up, moved
out over the lake, skimming it-dropped into the water and sank. Mary waited
until she was a quarter mile off shore in fifty feet of water, then called a
station. „Answer,“ said a voice.
„’Life is short—‚“
„’-but the years are long.’“
„’Not,’“ Mary responded, „’while the evil days come not.’“
„I sometimes wonder,“ the voice answered conversationally. „Okay, Mary.
I’ve checked you.“
„Tommy?“
„No-Cecil Hedrick. Are your controls cast loose?“
„Yes. Take over.“
Seventeen minutes later the car surfaced in a pool which occupied much of
an artificial cave. When the car was beached, Mary got out, said hello to the
guards and went on through a tunnel into a large underground room where
fifty or sixty men and women were seated. She chatted until a clock
announced midnight, then she mounted a rostrum and faced them.
„I am,“ she stated, „one hundred and eighty-three years old. Is there anyone
here who is older?“
No one spoke. After a decent wait she went on, „Then in accordance with our
customs I declare this meeting opened. Will you choose a moderator?“
Someone said, „Go ahead, Mary.“ When no one else spoke up, she said,
„Very well.“ She seemed indifferent to the honor and the group seemed to
share her casual attitude-an air of never any hurry, of freedom from the
tension of modern life.
„We are met as usual,“ she announced, „to discuss our welfare and that of
our sisters and brothers. Does any Family representative have a message
from his family? Or does anyone care to speak for himself?“
A man caught her eye and spoke up. „Ira Weatheral, speaking for the
Johnson Family. We’ve met nearly two months early. The trustees must have
a reason. Let’s hear it.“
She nodded and turned to a prim little man in the first row. „Justin . . . if you
will, please.“
The prim little man stood up and bowed stiffly. Skinny legs stuck out below
his badly-cut kilt. He looked and acted like an elderly, dusty civil servant, but
his black hair and the firm, healthy tone of his skin said that he was a man in
his prime. „Justin Foote,“ he said precisely, „reporting for the trustees. It has
been eleven years since the Families decided on the experiment of letting the
public know that there were, living among them, persons who possessed a
probable, life expectancy far in excess of that anticipated by the average
man, as well as other persons who had proved the scientific truth of such
expectation by having lived more than twice the normal life span of human
beings.“
Although he spoke without notes he sounded as if he were reading aloud a
prepared report. What he was saying they all knew but no one hurried him;
his audience had none of the febrile impatience so common elsewhere. „In
deciding,“ he droned on, „to reverse the previous long-standing policy of
silence and concealment as to the peculiar aspect in which we differ from the
balance of the human race, the Families were moved by several
considerations. The reason for the original adoption of the policy of
concealment should be noted:
„The first offspring resulting from unions assisted by the Howard Foundation
were born in 1875. They aroused no comment, for they were in no way
remarkable. The Foundation was an openly-chartered non-profit
corporation—„
On March 17, 1874, Ira Johnson, medical student, sat in the law offices of
Deems, Wingate, Alden, & Deems and listened to an unusual proposition. At
last he interrupted the senior partner. „Just a moment! Do I understand that
you are trying to hire me to marry one of these women?“The lawyer looked
shocked. „Please, Mr. Johnson. Not at all“ „Well, it certainly sounded like it.“
„No, no, such a contract would be void, against public policy. We are simply
informing you, as administrators of a trust, that should it come about that you
do marry one of the young ladies on this list it would then be our pleasant
duty to endow each child of such a union according to the scale here set
forth. But there would be no Contract with us involved, nor is there any
‚proposition’ being made to you-and we certainly do not urge any course of
action on you. We are simply informing you of certain facts.“
Ira Johnson scowled and shuffled his feet. „What’s it all about? Why?“
„That is the business of the Foundation. One might put it that we approve of
your grandparents.“
„Have you discussed me with them?“ Johnson said sharply.
He felt no affection for his grandparents. A tight-fisted foursome-if any one of
them had had the grace to die at a reasonable age he would not now be
worried about money enough to finish medical school.
„We have talked with them, yes. But not about you.“
The lawyer shut off further discussion and young Johnson accepted
gracelessly a list of young women, all strangers, with the intention of tearing it
up the moment he was outside the office. Instead, that night he wrote seven
drafts before he found the right words in which to start cooling off the relation
between himself and his girl back home. He was glad that he had never
actually popped the question to her-it would have been deucedly awkward.
When he did marry (from the list) it seemed a curious but not too remarkable
coincidence that his wife as well as himself had four living, healthy, active
grandparents.
„-an openly chartered non-profit corporation,“ Foote continued, „and its
avowed purpose of encouraging births among persons of sound American
stock was consonant with the customs of that century. By the simple
expedient of being closemouthed about the true purpose of the Foundation
no unusual methods of concealment were necessary until late in that period
during the World Wars sometimes loosely termed ‚The Crazy Years—‚“
Selected headlines April to June 1969:
BABY BILL BREAKS BANK
2-year toddler youngest winner $1,000,000 TV jackpot
White House phones congrats
COURT ORDERS STATEHOUSE SOLD
Colorado Supreme Bench Rules State Old Age Pension Has
First Lien All State Property
N.Y. YOUTH MEET DEMANDS UPPER LIMIT ON FRANCHISE
„U.S. BIRTH RATE ‚TOP SECRET!’“-DEFENSE SEC
CAROLINA CONGRESSMAN COPS BEAUTY CROWN
„Available for draft for President“ she announces while
starting tour to show her qualifications
IOWA RAISES VOTING AGE TO FORTY-ONE
Rioting on Des Moines Campus
EARTH-EATING FAD MOVES WEST: CHICAGO PARSON EATS CLAY
SANDWICH IN PULPIT
„Back to simple things,“ he advises flock.
LOS ANGELES HI-SCHOOL MOB DEFIES SCHOOL BOARD
„Higher Pay, Shorter hours, no Homework-We Demand
Our Right to Elect Teachers, Coaches.“
SUICIDE RATE UP NINTH SUCCESSIVE YEAR
AEC Denies Fall-Out to Blame
„’-The Crazy Years.’ The trustees of that date decided-correctly, we now
believe-that any minority during that period of semantic disorientation and
mass hysteria was a probable target for persecution, discriminatory
legislation, and even of mob violence. Furthermore the disturbed financial
condition of the country and in particular the forced exchange of trust
securities for government warrants threatened the solvency of the trust.
„Two courses of action were adopted: the assets of the Foundation were
converted into real wealth and distributed widely among members of the
Families to be held by them as owners-of-record; and the so-called
‚Masquerade’ was adopted as a permanent policy. Means were found to
simulate the death of any member of the Families who lived to a socially
embarrassing age and to provide him with a new identity in another part of
the country.
„The wisdom of this later policy, though irksome to some, became evident at
once during the Interregnum of the Prophets. The Families at the beginning
of the reign of the First Prophet had ninety-seven per cent of their members
with publicly avowed ages of less than fifty years. The close public
registration enforced by the secret police of the Prophets made changes of
public identity difficult, although a few were accomplished with the aid of the
revolutionary Cabal.
„Thus, a combination of luck and foresight saved our Secret from public
disclosure. This was well-we may be sure that things would have gone
harshly at that time for any group possessing a prize beyond the power of the
Prophet to confiscate.
„The Families took no part as such in the events leading up to the Second
American Revolution, but many members participated and served with credit
in the Cabal and in the fighting which preceded the fall of New Jerusalem.
We took advantage of the period of disorganization which followed to
readjust the ages of our kin who had grown conspicuously old. In this we
were aided by certain members of the Families who, as members of the
Cabal, held key posts in the Reconstruction.
„It was argued by many at the Families’ meeting of 2075, the year of the
Covenant, that we should reveal ourselves, since civil liberty was firmly
reestablished. The majority did not agree at that time . . . perhaps through
long habits of secrecy and caution. But the renascence of culture in the
ensuing fifty years, the steady growth of tolerance and good manners, the
semantically sound orientation of education, the increased respect for the
custom of privacy and for the dignity of the individual-all of these things led
us to believe that the time had at last come when it was becoming safe to
reveal ourselves and to take our rightful place as an odd but nonetheless
respected minority in society.
„There were compelling reasons to do so. Increasing numbers of us were
finding the ‚Masquerade’ socially intolerable in a new and better society. Not
only was it upsetting to pull up roots and seek a new background every few
years but also it grated to have to live a lie in a society where frank honesty
and fair dealing were habitual with most people. Besides that, the Families as
a group had learned many things through our researches in the bio-sciences,
things which could be of great benefit to our poor short-lived brethren. We
needed freedom to help them.
„These and similar reasons were subject to argument. But the resumption of
the custom of positive physical identification made the ‚Masquerade’ almost
untenable. Under the new orientation a sane and peaceful citizen welcomes
positive identification under appropriate circumstances even though jealous
of his right of privacy at all other times-so we dared not object; it would have
aroused curiosity, marked us as an eccentric group, set apart, and thereby
have defeated the whole purpose of the ‚Masquerade.’
„We necessarily submitted to personal identification. By the time of the
meeting of 2125, eleven years ago, it had become extremely difficult to
counterfeit new identities for the ever-increasing number of us holding public
ages incompatible with personal appearance; we decided on the experiment
of letting volunteers from this group up to ten per cent of the total
membership of the Families reveal themselves for what they were and
observe the consequences, while maintaining all other secrets of the
Families’ organization.
„The results were regrettably different from our expectations.“
Justin Foote stopped talking. The silence had gone on for several moments
when a solidly built man of medium height spoke up. His hair was slightly
grizzled-unusual in that group-and his face looked space tanned. Mary
Sperling had noticed him and had wondered who he was-his live face and
gusty laugh had interested her. But any member was free to attend the
conclaves of the Families’ council; she had thought no more of it.
He said, „Speak up, Bud. What’s your report?“
Foote made his answer to the chair. „Our senior psychometrician should give
the balance of the report. My remarks were prefatory.“
„For the love o’—„ the grizzled stranger exclaimed. „Bud, do you mean to
stand there and admit that all you had to say were things we already knew?“
„My remarks were a foundation . . . and my name is Justin Foote, not
Bud.’“
Mary Sperling broke in firmly. „Brother,“ she said to the stranger, „since you
are addressing the Families, will you please name yourself? I am sorry to say
that I do not recognize you.“
„Sorry, Sister. Lazarus Long, speaking for myself.“
Mary shook her head. „I still don’t place you.“
„Sorry again-that’s a ‚Masquerade’ name I took at the time of the First
Prophet . . . it tickled me. My Family name is Smith . . . Woodrow Wilson
Smith.“
„’Woodrow Wilson Sm—‚ How old are you?“
„Eh? Why, I haven’t figured it lately. One hun . . . no, two hundred and-
thirteen years. Yeah, that’s right, two hundred and thirteen.“
There was a sudden, complete silence. Then Mary said quietly, „Did you hear
me inquire for anyone older than myself?“
„Yes. But shucks, Sister, you were doing all right. I ain’t attended a meeting
of the Families in over a century. Been some changes.“
„I’ll ask you to carry on from here.“ She started to leave the platform.
„Oh no!“ he protested. But she paid no attention and found a seat. He looked
around, shrugged and gave in. Sprawling one hip over a corner of the
speaker’s table he announced, „All right, let’s get on with it. Who’s next?“
Ralph Schultz of the Schultz Family looked more like a banker than a
psychometrician. He was neither shy nor absent-minded and he had a flat,
underemphasized way of talking that carried authority. „I was part of the
group that proposed ending the ‚Masquerade.’ I was wrong. I believed that
the great majority of our fellow citizens, reared under modern educational
methods, could evaluate any data without excessive emotional disturbance. I
anticipated that a few abnormal people would dislike us, even hate us; I even
predicted that most people would envy us-everybody who enjoys life would
like to live a long time. But I did not anticipate any serious trouble. Modern
attitudes have done away with interracial friction; any who still harbor race
prejudice are ashamed to voice it. I believed that our society was so tolerant
that we could live peacefully and openly with the short-lived.
„I was wrong.
„The Negro hated and envied the white man as long as the white man
enjoyed privileges forbidden the Negro by reason of color. This was a sane,
normal reaction. When discrimination was removed, the problem solved itself
and cultural assimilation took place. There is a similar tendency on the part of
the short-lived to envy the long-lived. We assumed that this expected
reaction would be of no social importance in most people once it was made
clear that we owe our peculiarity to our genes-no fault nor virtue of our own,
just good luck in our ancestry.
„This was mere wishful thinking. By hindsight it is easy to see that correct
application of mathematical analysis to the data would have given a different
answer, would have spotlighted the false analogy. I do not defend the
misjudgment, no defense is possible. We were led astray by our hopes.
„What actually happened was this: we showed our shortlived cousins the
greatest boon it is possible for a man to imagine . . . then we told them it
could never be theirs. This faced them with an unsolvable dilemma. They
have rejected the unbearable facts, they refuse to believe us. Their envy now
turns to hate, with an emotional conviction that we are depriving them of their
rights . . . deliberately, maliciously.
„That rising hate has now swelled into a flood which threatens the welfare
and even the lives of all our revealed brethren . . . and which is potentially as
dangerous to the rest of us. The danger is very great and very pressing.“ He
sat down abruptly.
They took it calmly, with the unhurried habit of years. Presently a female
delegate stood up. „Eve Barstow, for the Cooper Family. Ralph Schultz, I am
a hundred and nineteen years old, older, I believe, than you are. I do not
have your talent for mathematics or human behavior but I have known a lot of
people. Human beings are inherently good and gentle and kind. Oh, they
have their weaknesses but most of them are decent enough if you give them
half a chance. I cannot believe that they would hate me and destroy me
simply because I have lived a long time. What have you to go on? You admit
one mistake-why not two?“
Schultz looked at her soberly and smoothed his kilt. „You’re right, Eve. I
could easily be wrong again. That’s the trouble with psychology; it is a
subject so terribly complex, so many unknowns, such involved relationships,
that our best efforts sometimes look silly in the bleak light of later facts.“ He
stood up again, faced the others, and again spoke with flat authority. „But I
am not making a long-range prediction this time; I am talking about facts, no
guesses, not wishful thinking-and with those facts a prediction so short-range
that it is like predicting that an egg will break when you see it already on its
way to the floor. But Eve is right . . . as far as she went. Individuals are kind
and decent . . . as individuals and to other individuals. Eve is in no danger
from her neighbors and friends, and I am in no danger from mine. But she is
in danger from my neighbors and friends -and I from hers. Mass psychology
is not simply a summation of individual psychologies; that
is a prime theorem of social psychodynamics -not just my opinion; no
exception has ever been found to this theorem. It is the social mass-action
rule, the mob-hysteria law, known and used by military, political, and religious
leaders, by advertising men and prophets and propagandists, by rabble
rousers and actors and gang leaders, for generations before it was
formulated in mathematical symbols. It works. It is working now.
„My colleagues and I began to suspect that a mob-hysteria trend was
building up against us several years ago. We did not bring our suspicions to
the council for action because we could not prove anything. What we
observed then could have been simply the mutterings of the crackpot
minority present in even the healthiest society. The trend was at first so minor
that we could not be sure it existed, for all social trends are intermixed with
other social trends, snarled together like a plate of spaghetti-worse than that,
for it takes an abstract topological space of many dimensions (ten or twelve
are not uncommon and hardly adequate) to describe mathematically the
interplay of social forces. I cannot overemphasize the complexity of the
problem.
„So we waited and worried and tried statistical sampling, setting up our
statistical universes with great care.
„By the time we were sure, it was almost too late. Socio-psychological trends
grow or die by a ‚yeast growth’ law, a complex power law. We continued to
hope that other favorable factors would reverse the trend-Nelson’s work in
symbiotics, our own contributions to geriatrics, the great public interest in the
opening of the Jovian satellites to immigration. Any major break-through
offering longer life, and greater hope to the short-lived could end the
smouldering resentment against us.
„Instead the smouldering has burst into flame, into an uncontrolled forest fire.
As nearly as we can measure it, the rate has doubled in the past thirty-seven
days and the rate itself is accelerated. I can’t guess how far or how fast it will
go-and that’s why we asked for this emergency session. Because we can
expect trouble at any moment.“ He sat down hard, looking tired.
Eve did not argue with him again and no one else argued with him at all; not
only was Ralph Schultz considered expert in his own field but also every one
of them, each from his own viewpoint, had seen the grosser aspects of the
trend building up against their revealed kin. But, while the acceptance of the
problem was unanimous, there were as many opinions about what to do
about it as there were people present. Lazarus let the discussion muddle
along for two hours before he held up a hand. „We aren’t getting anywhere,“
he stated, „and it looks like we won’t get anywhere tonight. Let’s take an
over-all look at it, hitting just the high spots:
„We can—„ He started ticking plans off on his fingers- „do nothing, sit tight,
and see what happens.
„We can junk the ‚Masquerade’ entirely, reveal our full numbers, and demand
our rights politically.
„We can sit tight on the surface and use our organization and money to
protect our revealed brethren, maybe haul ‚em back into the ‚Masquerade.’
„We can reveal ourselves and ask for a place to colonize where we can
live by ourselves.
„Or we can do something else. I suggest that you sort yourselves out
according to those four major points of view-say in the corners of the room,
starting clockwise in that far right hand corner-each group hammer out a plan
and get it ready to submit to the Families. And those of you who don’t favor
any of those four things gather in the middle of the room and start scrappin’
over just what it is you do think. Now, if I hear no objection, I am going to
declare this lodge recessed until midnight tomorrow night. How about it?“
No one spoke up. Lazarus Long’s streamlined version of parliamentary
procedure had them somewhat startled; they were used to long, leisurely
discussions until it became evident that one point of view had become
unanimous. Doing things in a hurry was slightly shocking.
But the man’s personality was powerful, his years gave him prestige, and his
slightly archaic way of speaking added to his patriarchal authority; nobody
argued.
„Okay,“ Lazarus announced, clapping his hands once. „Church is out until
tomorrow night.“ He stepped down from the platform.
Mary Sperling came up to him. „I would like to know you better,“ she said,
looking him in the eyes.
摘要：

Methuselah’sChildrenPARTI„MARYSPERLING,you’reafoolnottomarryhim!“MarySperlingaddedupherlossesandwroteacheckbeforeanswering,„There’stoomuchdifferenceinage.“Shepassedoverhercredi voucher.„Ishouldn’tgamblewithyou-sometimesIthinkyou’reasensitive.“„Nonsense!You’rejusttryingtochangethesubject.Youmustben...

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