ethnic lines. Differences in opinion could be
deadly; too many groups now had access to the supremely deadly hydrogen
bombs.

Under the circumstances, deviant behavior could not be tolerated.

Unification was finally completed. The conquest of space went on, from
moon ship to planet ship to star ship. But Earth became increasingly
rigid in its institutions. A civilization more inflexible than anything
produced by medieval Europe punished any opposition to existing customs,
habits, beliefs. These breaches of the social contract were considered
major crimes as serious as murder or arson. They were punished
similarly. The antique institutions of secret police, political police,
informers, all were used. Every possible device was brought to bear
toward the all-important goal of conformity.

For the nonconformists, there was Omega.

Capital punishment had been banished long before, but there was neither
room nor resources to take the growing number of criminals who crammed
prisons everywhere. The world leaders finally decided to transport these
criminals to a separate prison world, copying a system which the French
had used in Guiana and New Caledonia, and the British had used in
Australia and early North America. Since it was impossible to rule Omega
from Earth, the authorities didn't try. They simply made sure that none
of the prisoners escaped.

That was the end of volume one. A note at the end said that volume two
was to be a study of contemporary Earth. It was entitled _The Status
Civilization_.

The second volume was not on the shelves. Barrent asked the librarian,
and was told that it had been destroyed in the interests of public
safety.

Barrent left the library and went to a little park. He sat and stared at
the ground and tried to think.

He had expected to find an Earth similar to the one described in
Whittler's book. He had been prepared for a police state, tight security
controls, a repressed populace, and a growing air of unrest. But that,
apparently, was the past. So far, he hadn't even seen a policeman. He
had observed no security controls, and the people he had met did not
seem harshly repressed. Quite the contrary. This seemed like a
completely different world....

Except that year after year, the ships came to Omega with their cargoes
of brainwashed prisoners. Who arrested them? Who judged them? What sort
of a society produced them?

He would have to find out the answers himself.

Cha