The women of the Lines are viewed by the public as almost obscenely extravagant. Gentlemen, allow me to enlighten you on this point, with just one typical fact about these alleged extravagances. An adult woman of the Lines is allowed to own only the following garments: two plain tunics; one simple dress for official functions; one tailored garment intended for wear in church and at work in government negotiations; two pairs of coveralls; a winter cape; a rain cape; two nightgowns; two pairs of shoes — which are clingsoles; and a set of minimal underclothing. Where I have specified two of any item, this means “one for warm weather, one for cold weather.” As for ornament, gentlemen — a linguist woman is allowed her wedding ring, a religious medallion or cross if she wants one, and her wrist computer. Nothing else is permitted, and no cosmetics of any kind.
You might think for just a moment, gentlemen, how your own wives and daughters would react to that sort of restriction. I, for one, would be afraid to go home…
“No,” said Thomas, “I will not sympathize with you. Absolutely not.”
“The compassionate linguist,” said Smith. “Always eager to help.”
“No,” said Thomas evenly, “we have never claimed to be compassionate. There have been good reasons for that, which I do not propose to discuss with you — and if you choose to take that as meaning I won’t stoop to do so, that’s your privilege. My personal statement is that I don’t have time to waste in that fashion, and that I resent your taking up what time I do have with this nonsense.”
“We regret that you find our efforts useless, Mr. Chornyak,” said the man bitterly. “We’re not lofty scientists here, moving through our days in the sublime pursuit of pure knowledge — we are ordinary men, doing ordinary jobs. One of those jobs, about which my personal statement is that I think it is both pathetic and stupid, is to serve as liaison between you and the government in situations which both you and the government prefer not to have the public know about. And which I assume you’d be distressed to have the rest of the linguists know about… But I am ordered to do this; and I do it as well as I can.”
Thomas knew the taste of failure, listening to this man who was, as he said, only trying to do an impossible job because it was what he was expected to do and had agreed to do. He was sharply aware that if his own father knew what was taking place here today he would condemn Thomas in terms that would not be pleasant or give quarter. Situations like this only made the breach between public and linguist wider and more poisonous, only played into the hands of those who gained by that breach… and he must find time, somehow, to mend some bridges and span the gap. If only he could be six people and be in as many places at one time. If only the government would listen to the linguists’ warnings that there was a limit to the number of Alien tongues it was possible for them to acquire and use on that government’s behalf — which would have meant curbing the dizzying rate of expansion into space and colonization. Curbing the public greed for more room, more opportunity, more new frontiers…
“Smith,” he said, trying not to think about it, “I have nothing but admiration for your devotion to your duty. That is not sarcasm, that is not empty politeness, it is simply the way I feel. You don’t have to explain your situation to me, I understand that it’s awkward and distasteful. But I can only repeat, man, that I told you. Didn’t I, Smith? I warned you, right here in this room, less than a month ago, and you would not listen. Isn’t that true?”
“You warned us, yes.”
“And what did I warn you of, Smith?”
“That if we tried to Interface that baby it would die horribly, just like all the others. You warned us, and you were right; and you are entitled to whatever warped satisfaction that gives you, Chornyak.”
Thomas sat back in the chair, his lips slightly parted, holding the government man with his eyes until the red flush had spread from Smith’s neck all the way to his forehead. They had not sent poor Jones into the arena this time, and it was just as well.
“All right, all right!” Smith spat at him. “That was a shitty thing to say! And I retract it. I’m sorry.”
Thomas let that hang in the air. He let his face and his body and his hands do the work for him, and he said not one word. Smith didn’t disappoint him.
“It’s not the same thing,” the man said through his teeth, his hands fiddling aimlessly with a scrap of paper on the table before him, his shoulder hunching. “It’s not the same thing at all… it’s not like somebody’s kidnapped one of our kids and destroyed it that way. It’s very, very different. You Lingoes, you don’t have any feeling for your kids, you breed them like flyers come off assembly lines, they’re just products to you. Shit, I’ve heard you, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard you, talking about it… You don’t say, ‘Hey, my kid won a prize at Homeroom today, we’re proud of him,’ naah… I’ve heard you! ‘That boy means two more Alien languages added to the inventories of Household So-and-So.’ ‘The girl has a certain value, she increases our assets by three little-known Earth languages in addition to the Alien language for which she has primary responsibility.’ JEEzus, you talk about your kids like they were stocks and bonds, or the effing corn crop… you don’t care about them! If you cared about them, I’d feel different about this, I’d feel sorry for your people, sorry about your kid, sure… but shit, Chornyak! They don’t mean anything to their own families — why should they mean anything to us?”
Thomas considered it carefully, pleased to note that his earlier consciousness of guilt had completely disappeared, and decided that he could spare a few minutes. For the good of his battered spirit and this dolt’s soul. It had been a long day. He was, he decided, entitled.
“Tell me, Smith,” he asked, “how’s your history?”
“My what?”
“How’s your background in history? The usual mass-ed courses? And surely a little something extra to prepare you for government service?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Do you remember, Smith, the sums of money poured into a cure for the epidemic of child abuse that swept this nation in the late 20th and early 21st centuries? Do you remember when it was not safe to put even the most hardened and streetwise criminal into a prison if his crime was child abuse, because the other inmates would kill him like a mad dog, and less gently?”
“I read about it. Everybody knows about that.”
“Yes. So they do. We’ve stamped out child abuse, haven’t we, Smith… at least we’ve stamped out its excesses and its obvious physical forms. We value our children now, we treasure them, because they are the future of the human race. We no longer leave the molding of their minds and their characters to the random attention of ignorant pseudo-teachers in a parody of education. We no longer leave their diets and their exercise and their medical care to whatever chance factors happen to come their way — our children are cared for now with the very best that this nation can provide, for their bodies and their minds and their spirits. And it makes no difference where they come from or who their parents are, they are all cared for that way. You are aware of all that, Smith.”