02. The Shadow Dancers by Jack L. Chalker Page B

desirable parts of any of them."
    "Yeah, that's all well and good for you," I said, "but what about the common folks?"
    "Those who greeted you today are so-called common folks. There's no heavy labor; it's mostly a service and maintenance economy here, and most of what we have that's really odious is automated. We automated everything once, but finally cut back so we automated only what people shouldn't ever be required to do. They, too, have a choice of many jobs, no real stress or pressure they don't wish to take upon themselves, and much in the way of benefits and opportunities. For example, how old would you say that trio who met you were?"
    "No more than eighteen for the oldest," Sam answered.
    The security chief laughed. "The girl is thirty-seven, and the two boys are thirty-one and forty. When you do jobs you enjoy and have conquered all the diseases and defects inherent in our ancestry, it's amazing how long a span you can have. I, for example, am sixty-seven just last month. From your standpoint I'm probably about half that, which is the way I feel and act. The average lifespan here is about two hundred and nine years, and you begin to get gray hairs and a few wrinkles at about ninety, but you really don't start looking old until you're about a hundred and sixty, and I know several two-hundred-year-olds who still swim a few kilometers a day and do mountain climbing for a hobby. That's true no matter what class you're in."
    "Yeah, but what if some commoners think they can run things better than you, or maybe want to be scientists instead of lab assistants or something like that? What then?" I asked, gettin' an idea of how even this kind of society could get rebels.
    "That's what I meant by outlets and expansion," Aldrath replied. "If there are commoners who believe they have superior talents and abilities and can demonstrate them, there are ways for them to be educated every bit as good as, say, my own son. We just can't have them here, since that would upset the system and the balance. They are welcome to go to a colony where they might find a place, or even found their own. Only the corporate level is closed absolutely, since there can be only one set of people controlling the Labyrinth and they are born, raised, and trained to do that and safeguard both us and the other worlds from one who might use that power for evil. We are not dictators to other worlds and cultures, Madam Horowitz. We are thieves. We steal things we need, and, most of all, ideas, art forms, even stories from unique and different cultures. In exchange, we keep the would-be dictators and oppressors of universes out, and we try as hard as we can to preserve worlds that have not destroyed themselves from doing so. Other than that, we do not tip balances."
    "But you're much of organized crime on many worlds, including ours," Sam noted. "That's sure as hell interfering."
    "I didn't say we didn't interfere. I said we do not tip balances. Those things were there before we came and would be there with or without us. We don't even increase their efficiency, and we leave it in local hands. Think of the alternative. We could easily take over any government, even all of them, and thereby safeguard everything, but we do not. We do not actually even take over the criminal societies, we just use them to help us covertly get what we wish. The vast bulk of the criminals do not know or even suspect us."
    "Yeah, but you still got traitors and rebels," I pointed out. "I mean, we only got into this thing 'cause some folks from here got ambitious."
    "That's true," he admitted, sippin' his drink. "As hard as we try, there are just some people who'll never understand the system. You see, we're thieves as well as explorers and preservers. We get a lot out of this. Our medicine, our power systems, this vehicle-all stolen ideas. To preserve this wilderness, we import raw materials we need and which we buy at a fair price and never in quantities that would impoverish a