Transcriber's Notes:
"Yes sir. Well, there are three men outside trying to kill me...."
"Quite right," Mr. Frendlyer said. "And today is Landing Day. You cameoff the ship that landed today, and have been classified a peon.... I'mhappy to say that everything is in order. The Landing Day Hunt ends atsundown. You can leave here with the knowledge that everything iscorrect and that your rights have not been violated."
"Leave here? After sundown, you mean."
Mr. Frendlyer shook his head and smiled sadly. "I'm afraid not.According to the law you must leave here at once."
"But they'll kill me!"
"That's very true. Unfortunately it can't be helped. A victim bydefinition is one who is to be killed.... We protect rights, notvictims."
OMEGA: PRISON PLANET
LIFE EXPECTANCY: THREE YEARS
MAXIMUM
MOST PEOPLE ARE
LUCKIER THAN THAT....
Books by
ROBERT SHECKLEY:
From ACE Science Fiction
Division of Charter Communications Inc.
A GROSSET & DUNLAP COMPANY
360 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010
THE STATUS CIVILIZATION
Copyright © 1960 by Robert Sheckley
First appeared under the title Omega in Amazing Science FictionStories, published by Ziff-Davis.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any formor by any means, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in areview, without permission in writing from the publisher.
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actualpersons, 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
His return to consciousness was a slow and painful process. It was ajourney in which he traversed all time. He dreamed. He rose throughthick layers of sleep, out of the imaginary beginnings of all things. Helifted a pseudopod from primordial ooze, and the pseudopod was him. Hebecame an amoeba which contained his essence; then a fish marked withhis own peculiar individuality; then an ape unlike all other apes. Andfinally, he became a man.
What kind of man? Dimly he saw himself, faceless, a beamer gripped tighton one hand, a corpse at his feet. That kind of man.
He awoke, rubbed his eyes, and waited for ...