I Speak for Earth by John Brunner

Author:John Brunner [Brunner, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction
ISBN: 9780575101203
Publisher: Hachette Littlehampton
Published: 2011-09-29T06:00:00+00:00

XI

OVER THE PAST few days some building activity had been in progress uphill from the quarters toward the crown of the island. A plain shed had been set up. Bunks had been moved in. Joe had glanced at it in passing and assumed that extra barrack accommodation for the troops had been required. The building was featureless and uninteresting. He thought no more about it.

The following morning, however, it was toward this building that Schneider led the candidates when he had assembled them in the recreation hall. They talked casually as they accompanied him; from what he had been told, Joe knew that all of them had been subjected to the same kinds of tests as he himself had undergone prior to being brought to the island, and were not apprehensive about anything else that might be tried out on them.

The shed had one door—a thick one—and two small windows in the end walls. Briskly Schneider unlocked the door and held it open, indicating that the others should enter. They did so. After the bright sun outside, the interior was very dark; Joe had to blink and wait for some moments before he made out that there was nothing in the hut at all except six wall-mounted bunks, each with a mattress, a sink and toilet, and a table in the centre which could be reached from the lowest tier of the bunks.

Behind him, Schneider could be heard turning a key in the door.

They waited for him to come forward and indicate what was to be done. When he did, he no longer held the key he had used on the door, and his face was seen to be shiny with perspiration. His voice was thicker than usual when he spoke.

“Please be seated,” he said. “It is not comfortable in here. It is deliberately so. You will further observe that privacy is impossible. That too is deliberate. We will remain here for a week.”

Lawrence Tshekele said, “But …!”

“There are no ‘buts’,” said Schneider inexorably. “Please be seated.”

A little dazed, his companions obeyed. Joe was coming to expect the unexpected where the matter of selection was concerned; he reserved judgment and said nothing. Stepan Prodshenko was not so patient. He said, “But what could be the purpose of this game? Here is nothing—hardly room to move! What shall I do for my daily running if I am not to lose my form?”

“I’m going to explain,” said Schneider with careful mildness. Stepan assumed an aggressive expression, which said better than words that the explanation had better be good; Mrs. King sighed loudly and Rohini Das shrugged as though to say that whatever happened she would let it go by her.

Perched on the edge of one of the bunks, leaning forward on the central table with his elbows, Schneider looked at nothing and began to speak in a barely audible voice.

“It must have occurred to you all—I know it has to some—that the representative from Earth must be a superman. And you have

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