nt. When the
Government provides every convenience, every comfort you can think of
here, you can't stand having to work in a mine, with an oxygen helmet,
stuffed into heavy clothes. You can't stand the danger and the fear--and
somehow, inside, you must know it. I'm pretty strong, and I never met a
man I was afraid of, but I know I couldn't stand Mars." He gripped the
rail and stared out over the wide, swarming street. "But Earth is a
trap, Nedda. A big comfortable trap where you walk around endlessly
without being any use at all."

She trod the brake and barely missed bumping a couple who had stopped to
embrace. "_I'm_ some use, hon. Wait'll we get home." Her eyes held a
promise she could barely restrain.

Automatically, he caressed her with a practiced hand--and grabbed the
wheel when she suddenly strained against him, trembling, pressing eager
lips against his neck.

Christ, how long had she been protected? He felt a mounting anger
against the social ennui which drove men's minds to such inhuman
activity. Departure was the only escape from this kind of thing, and
from the city--from any city.

But the Departees had always been only a tiny minority. Did that mean
they--and he--were wrong? He brooded about it for seemingly the googolth
time, guiding the scooter without conscious thought, turning as Nedda
directed.

A trap, he'd told her. Well, he could see no reason to change that. The
blazingly glorious sensotheaters, cafes, gymnasiums, dancing salons,
amusement rides and hypnodream houses, crowding every main thoroughfare
with their fantastically ornate architecture, were--when you thought
about it--designed to trap people's minds, keep them from thinking of
anything but a gossamer, useless pursuit of personal pleasure. And
wasn't the design faulty when everyone was bored, when some chose
Departure and others sank to the unnatural practice of protection to
whet their sated appetites?

Nor was there any apparent hope for the future. Theatre productions,
dream tapes, even the elaborate home teleview shows were all historical.
Why? Was Government admitting there was nothing but staleness in the
present? Why the concern with backtime?

Because of Government entertainment diet, Allen could probably, with a
bit of practice, fish skillfully from an outrigger, make and use a
longbow expertly, run a store profitably in the Money Ages, weave cloth
correctly, build complete wooden houses--oh, any number of ancient
thin