Child of Earth by David Gerrold Page A

around the room at everybody else. “Understand this,” he said. “No matter what happens in this dome, no matter who does what to whom, you will respond as Linneans! You will think and act like Linneans at all times. Your lives depend on it. The lives of the people around you depend on it. The lives of countless people you have never met will depend on your ability to represent yourselves as native Linneans. If you cannot make and keep this commitment, my office will be open all night tonight and all day tomorrow for the acceptance of resignations. Any family choosing to resign may do so. We will levy appropriate financial penalties, of course. I will now adjourn this meeting.” He rang his bell one more time and walked out of the room.
    Tildie’s parents were the first ones out the door after him. And several other families followed without saying a word. I looked over at our moms and they were shaking their heads sadly. Some of the other parents whispered together. Some just sat sternly by themselves.
    The next day, Tildie’s family was gone, and so were two other families, including Jik and Jin and their parents.
    We talked about it at home for a long time too. The fact that we understood all the whats and the whys didn’t reassure us. While it sort of meant that we were finally learning to think like Linneans a little bit, it
also meant that we were leaving behind our Earth feelings too. And Big Jes, who usually made all of us laugh, was the saddest of all because up until now, he hadn’t given much thought to how much we were leaving behind. So things were plenty grim for the next week or two while folks sorted out how they felt about that.
    And meanwhile, three more families bailed out. They said, “They have too much money invested in us. They can’t afford to have too many families quit. They need us. They’ll call us back.” That’s what they believed anyway. We knew we wouldn’t be seeing them again. Not here, and certainly not on Linnea. You either agreed to the agreements or you didn’t.

A CHOICE
    I DIDN’T MISS TILDIE ALL THAT MUCH, but Jik and Jin were fun, and I was sorry to see them go. I asked Mom-Woo if we were going to quit too. She said no. Morra and Irm and Bhetto wouldn’t let us. And that made Mom-Lu and Mom-Trey laugh.
    Mom-Woo explained, “When we move over to Linnea, they get all the money and property we leave behind. They can hardly wait to see us go. But they have to go through the training with us; that’s part of the contract.”
    â€œIn case they change their minds and decide to come with?”
    â€œThat’s not likely, but yes, in case they change their minds.”
    â€œI’m still going to miss Jik and Jin.”
    â€œI’ll miss them too, sweetheart. But they might not be out of the program yet. They might transfer to another dome and start training for one of the barren worlds. Or they might come back here. They have a threemonth cooling off period to recommit to their agreements. The Authority doesn’t lock people out; they either choose to be here or not.”
    â€œDoes that mean Tildie and the gargoyles might come back too?”
    â€œI don’t think so. They were having a lot of other problems fitting in. Tildie’s little adventure was a convenient excuse for them to quit and be righteous about it. But it wasn’t any secret among the parents that the Administration was thinking of dropping them from the program. That’s why they accused Jaxin of hurting Tildie. So they could quit and not be penalized. They forgot that the Administration has cameras everywhere.
That’s why we don’t speak English even here in our private quarters. We have to think like Linneans, just like Administor Moffin said. And that means we have to live like Linneans everywhere.” Mom-Woo pulled the covers up to my chin. “Now get some sleep and tomorrow we’ll talk about