THE STATUS CIVILIZATION

Copyright (C) 1960 by Robert Sheckley

First appeared under the title _Omega in Amazing Science Fiction
Stories_, published by Ziff-Davis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
or by any means, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a
review, without permission in writing from the publisher.

All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

An ACE Book

_Cover art by David Bergen_

First Ace printing: November 1979

2468097531

Manufactured in the United States of America

CONTENTS

THE STATUS CIVILIZATION 1

TO ANYA

THE STATUS CIVILIZATION

Chapter One

His return to consciousness was a slow and painful process. It was a
journey in which he traversed all time. He dreamed. He rose through
thick layers of sleep, out of the imaginary beginnings of all things. He
lifted a pseudopod from primordial ooze, and the pseudopod was _him_. He
became an amoeba which contained _his_ essence; then a fish marked with
his own peculiar individuality; then an ape unlike all other apes. And
finally, he became a man.

What kind of man? Dimly he saw himself, faceless, a beamer gripped tight
on one hand, a corpse at his feet. _That_ kind of man.

He awoke, rubbed his eyes, and waited for further memories to come.

No memories came. Not even his name.

He sat up hastily and willed memory to return. When it didn't, he looked
around, seeking in his surroundings some clue to his identity.

He was sitting on a bed in a small gray room. There was a closed door
on one side. On the other, through a curtained alcove, he could see a
tiny lavatory. Light came into the room from some hidden source, perhaps
from the ceiling itself. The room had a bed and a single chair, and
nothing else.

He held his chin in his hand and closed his eyes. He tried to catalogue
all his knowledge, and the implications of that knowledge. He knew that
he was a man, species Homo sapiens, an inhabitant of the planet Earth.
He spoke a language which he knew was English. (Did that mean that there
were other languages?) He knew the commonplace names for things: room,
light, chair. He possessed in addition a limited amount of general
knowledge. He knew that there were many important things which he did
not know, which he once had known.

_Something must have happened to m