Brave New Worlds

clothing and stood before the massive doors. The bolts on the doors slid open. Jordan could feel the vibration in his feet as the giant door swung wide. there was a vibration in his neck as the controller spoke.
    "Loader A, twenty-percent reward period beginning immediately. "
    Had he retrieved the entire load drilled by Waterhammer he could have expected a ten-fold period for exceeding his quota by a wide margin. He had simply let the loader idle while the maintenance crew collected Waterhammer and took him for repair. When the work period had ended he found himself only slightly over his quota. Performance worthy of only the smallest period allotted. He would spend the first fifth of the work day in the sunroom. The remainder of the day he would spend at his station remembering the bright warmth.
    He remembered pieces of an instruction the book Thomas had given him,". . . Tiger burning bright. . . what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry. . . " But he had only been taught enough to read the machine manuals. What was a tiger? What symmetry should he fear?
    As the door opened the light from inside escaped into the hallway. Where it touched him there was warmth and white. He never knew his skin could be so white. As he stepped into the room and felt the light engulf him as if he had fallen into liquid. It was a feeling he remembered from somewhere long before.
    He hardly noticed the massive door swing shut behind him.
    There was a man lying naked on a flat tables arranged along the walls of the square white room. On the ceiling was a round white light source.
    The man sensed the vibration of the door closing. He slowly lifted his head and looked at Jordan. His eyes were openings onto a cold emptiness. Jordan hardly recognized him, his skin so white, eyes so black and deep. He raised a fist and signed the men's greeting to his mentor, Driver Thomas.
    Thomas sat up on the table and motioned for Jordan to sit beside him. As Jordan sat Thomas reached over and put his hand around the back of Jordan's neck. He jumped off the table, stood in front of him, and pulled Jordan's head toward him. He leaned forward until Jordan's chin was over his shoulder. Then he pressed Jordan's neck against his, touching his control connector against Jordan's. Instinctively, Jordan pulled away.
    "Don't be afraid," Driver Thomas said, a voice coming from the center of Jordan's head. "Control doesn't monitor here. "
    Jordan relaxed and leaned into Driver Thomas.
    Driver Thomas said, "But we won't have much time. If the door opens we'll be on monitor. they'll sixty-two us. "
    Jordan tried to pull away to look into Driver Thomas's face, but Thomas kept Jordan's neck pinned in an iron grip.
    "Why are you doing this?" said Jordan.
    "Last lesson, Jordan," said Thomas. "Control knows about the book. Even now maintenance is searching for it. They searched the K group and suspected Loader Solomon. That's why he was terminated. When they couldn't find the book they terminated everyone. I saw the order pass for three hundred replacements. An entire group, Jordan. three hundred men. three hundred lives. "
    "Waterhammer didn't show the book to anyone," Jordan said. He felt a tightness grow in his chest. It was a pain like the one he had felt the day before when stared down the shovel of the loader at Gaffer and Waterhammer on the mine floor.
    "I have to give you all lessons at once now," Thomas said. "there are many books. Many carry the word. "
    "My waterhammer said he understands," said Jordan.
    "Love is the lives of the men," said Thomas. "Does he understand that?"
    Jordan looked down at the muscles in Thomas's back. Then he stared out at the blank wall and the empty tables in the sunroom. The warm white light loosened the muscles in his back and arms.
    "The lives of the men," said Jordan. "My life?"
    "All life. The decision to repair rather than to replace. The worth of a man to himself. Worth of life as that of the ore. "
    "Men worth as ore?"
    "On the surface, Timer Andrew learned that men are bred from other men. They value their own lives as reward. Love is the value of men's lives. It is somehow like time in the sunroom. Like promotion. It is the value of men for other men. "
    In his mind Jordan saw the gaffer kneeling beside the wounded waterhammer. He remembered the boy's eyes as he threatened with the shovel of his machine. Why hadn't the boy moved?
    "My gaffer," said Jordan. "Last work period he prevented me from taking a dirty