Saturn Read Free Page B

in silence, their heads facing straight ahead but their eyes shifting toward Eberly and the captain before looking away again. Eberly remembered what the wand felt like at full charge and let his chin sink to his chest as he dutifully followed the captain away from the cafeteria.
    The captain led him to a small, stuffy room up in the executive area where the warden and other prison administrators had their offices. The room had one window, tightly closed and so grimy that the morning sunlight hardly brightened it. An oblong table nearly filled the room, its veneer chipped and dull. Two men in expensive-looking business suits were seated at it, their chairs almost scraping the bare gray walls.
    "Sit," said the captain, pointing with his wand to the chair at the foot of the table. Wondering what this was all about, and whether he would miss his breakfast, Eberly slowly sat down. The captain stepped out into the hallway and softly closed the door.
    "You are Malcolm Eberly?" said the man at the head of the table. He was rotund, fleshy-faced, his cheeks pink and his eyes set deep in his face. Eberly thought of a pig.
    "Yes, I am," Eberly replied. Then he added, "Sir."
    "Born Max Erlenmeyer, if our information is correct," said the man at the pig's right. He was prosperous-looking in an elegant dark blue suit and smooth, silver-gray hair. He had the look of a yachtsman to him: Eberly could picture him in a double-breasted blazer and a jaunty nautical cap.
    "I had my name legally changed when — "
    "That's a lie," said the yachtsman, as lightly as he might ask for a glass of water. An Englishman, from his accent, Eberly decided tentatively. That could be useful, perhaps.
    "But, sir — "
    "It doesn't matter," said the pig. "If you wish to be called Eberly, that is what we will call you. Fair enough?"
    Eberly nodded, completely baffled by them.
    "How would you like to be released from prison?" the pig asked.
    Eberly could feel his eyes go wide. But he quickly controlled his reactions and asked, "What would I have to do to be released?"
    "Nothing much," said the yachtsman. "Merely fly out to the planet Saturn."
    Gradually they revealed themselves. The fat one was from the Atlanta headquarters of the New Morality, the multinational fundamen t alist organization that had raised Eberly to manhood back in America.
    "We were very disappointed when you ran away from our monastery in Nebraska and took up a life of crime," he said, genuine sadness on his puffy face.
    "Not a life of crime," Eberly protested. "I made one mistake only, and now I'm suffering the consequences."
    The yachtsman smiled knowingly. "Your mistake was getting caught. We are here to offer you another chance."
    He was a Catholic, he claimed, working with the European Holy Disciples on various social programs. "Of which, you are one."
    "Me?" Eberly asked, still puzzled. "I don't understand."
    "It's really very simple," said the pig, clasping his fat hands prayerfully on the tabletop. "The International Consortium of Universities is organizing an expedition to the planet Saturn."
    "Ten thousand people in a self-contained habitat," added the yachtsman.
    "Ten thousand so-called intellectuals," the pig said, clear distaste in his expression. "Serving a cadre of scientists who wish to study the planet Saturn."
    The yachtsman glanced sharply at his associate, then went on, "Many governments are allowing certain individuals to leave Earth. Glad to be rid of them, actually."
    "The scientists are fairly prestigious men and women. They actually want to go to Saturn."
    "And they are all secularists, of course," the yachtsman added.
    "Of course," said Eberly.
    "We know that many people want to escape from the lives they are leading," the pig resumed. "They are unwilling to submit to the very necessary discipline that we of the New Morality impose."
    "The same thing applies in Britain and Europe," said the yachtsman. "The Holy Disciples cleaned up the cities, brought morality and order