Chapter 2

With the abolition of money and a gold-based currency as a medium of exchange (instead, there was a system of "value money" where one was given notes in direct proportion to one's goodness) crime was almost eliminated from the life of the city.

No one of the current generation could even remember when a crime such as mugging or armed robbery had taken place, although the history books were full of such deeds in past generations.

Because of these facts, when they found the man murdered beneath the walls of the Culture School, an obvious victim of robbery, the whole city was enraged. Men and women gave up their spare time in a hunt for the culprit who had committed the most heinous deed in their memory. At night, the clear, germ-free atmosphere of the city (controlled by the geodesic dome which was inflated at certain time) was filled with amateur sleuths.

Eventually they found the killers; two young people, a girl and boy, who had recently moved from the coastal metropolis.

A special tribunal was convened to try the case and it was held in the amphitheatre. Thousands of citizens turned out, not motivated by a love for the gory details of the crime, but rather by a genuine curiosity how two young people could act in such a manner.

The verdict was guilty. Then the jury retired once again to consider the punishment. The young man and woman neither cried nor laughed, nor betrayed any emotion whatsoever as they waited for the judgment as to their fate. Since the death penalty and imprisonment were no longer used as punishments, only one punishment remained; the work-cure on extra-planetary ships which was really a pleasant interlude.

Most of the spectators believed that this would be their fate.

The jury, however, thought differently. They sentenced the young couple to be treated by NNA.

Those spectators who had remained in the area to hear the verdict uttered a collective gasp. Even in that city, where drugs of the mind-expanding and truthfulfilling variety were readily dispensed with the blessing of the city administration, the spectators gasped. For NNA was the most potent drug their vaults possessed and had only recently been developed after years of research by their most prominent scientist. It was the result of hundreds of explorations into the so-called "foggy galaxies" where the base chemicals for NNA had been laboriously collected from the hives of mutated bees.

There was grumbling in the audience, for many had waited for years for a chance at the drug.

The foreman of the jury silenced them by the raise of the arm and he spoke:

"I realize that many of you are dissatisfied by my verdict. But I implore you to understand why we have suggested that the crown of our city's most precious possession our knowledge of psychopharmacology be employed in the rehabilitation of these two young people."

Again the mumbling but the raised hand and the fair-play spirit of the crowd prevailed. He continued:

"They will be taken to the laboratory and treated. Their progress will be reported to all of you."

The people began to file out. The young man and woman were led through the underground passages reserved for emergencies such as galactic storms. They walked for miles until they came to a wooden door which opened as they approached, obviously worked by an electric eye.

They stepped into a gleaming white laboratory. A tall man, in a white smock, greeted them kindly and led them into the experimentation room. Once in there, they were requested to remove their clothes. Professor Woods, the scientist in charge of the systhesization of NNA introduced himself to them and began to make small talk. He was trying to ascertain their treatment threshold; what dosage would be needed. They both seemed relaxed and the Professor was sure the treatment would be a success.

"You realize, of course, what we are going to do to you."

"You're going to destroy us," the girl said bitterly.

Professor Woods was shocked by her cynicism and her lack of confidence. He understood now how these two young people had committed murder they seemed to be totally deranged, they seemed to be without the inner light which had transformed their civilization into one of peace.

"We are not going to destroy you, we are going to save you."

The boy laughed at him. Professor Woods realized that it was impossible to carry on an intelligent conversation with them in their present state and he went to the refrigerator to remove the vial of NNA.

He held the small plastic vial up to the light.

"What is it?" the boy asked suspiciously.

"This," said the Professor gently, "will provide you with peace and freedom, two qualities which both of you obviously lack."

The corner of the girl's mouth was beginning to twitch.

"It comes," he continued, "from the 'foggy galaxy' and is one of the wonders..."

The boy slammed his fist against the wall of the room ... cursing him and saying:

"Never, you'll never give me that."

Woods ignored him and kept speaking about the wondrous qualities of the drug. His eyes searched their bodies, looking for the most convenient points of application.

"Listen to me. I am going to apply it. NNA works by establishing a link between the brain and actual behavior of the limbs. This link is, in effect, a blockage which funnels all behavior into the twin goals of peace and freedom. Do you understand?"

There was no reply from the two young people. Pouring some of the liquid onto his hand he approached the girl and tapped her nipples gently. The girl shivered. Her beautiful white breasts seemed to contract but the nipples sucked the NNA up.

Woods moved to the boy. Lifting up his inert penis, he gently smeared some NNA on the boy's globes. Then he held the drug in his hand and asked the two youngsters to immerse their tongues in it. They approached his cupped hand warily, like two animals beginning to drink at an unknown waterhole.

They lapped it up. Woods recapped the vial and moved to the side of the room where a chair had been provided for him. He picked up a pad of paper and sat down, waiting for developments.

At first there was nothing. They stood looking at each other, vaguely uneasy. Then the girl laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" The boy swung his arm at her but missed. Woods was unconcerned. He knew that the initial response to NNA was often a violent one and many experiments had shown that the drug induces, at the beginning, paranoid symptoms in the user.

"I want to talk to you," the girl said, giggling.

"What do you want?"

"Come here."

The boy approached her. They stood scarcely more than an inch apart. The girl laughed again and a second later thrust her breast into the boy's half-open mouth. For a moment the boy fought but then his mouth opened and Woods saw the quivering flesh sink deep into the pink hole. The girl stopped laughing and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. She pushed until her breast was a flattened orb against the lips of her partner. His tongue began to race across her drugged nipple until the girl threw her head back and uttered a cry that was only part human.

Woods knew it was beginning to work. Their bodies were beginning to emit a strange glow; as if the pigments of the skin had been ignited with a new type of charge.

Suddenly, the girl pulled her breast out of his mouth and moving to a corner of the room, crouched there like a frightened animal.

"Don't sit, don't sit," the boy shouted.

The girl remained crouched, her head buried in her hands.

The boy moved toward her, slowly, almost on tip toes and stood over her. He was mumbling something but Woods couldn't make it out. The boy finally knelt beside the girl and began to stroke her naked back. The girl responded with a form of singing, almost a chant that reverberated throughout the room.

Woods saw that the girl was caught up in an NNA response, so totally caught up that her body went from relaxation to tenseness, with such speed and such shock that she could no longer make sounds. She grasped the boy's arm for help in her distress but the boy himself was beginning to reach that strange state where every internal and external motion of the body raced madly from one extreme to another. This was the NNA re-ordering human behavior.

The Professor tensed. This was the dangerous time. This was the only moment where something could go wrong.

The boy started to crawl away as if his partner represented some terrible vision. She caught him and raked the sides of his body with her nails. He rolled over like a puppy who had been hurt and a second later her mouth sunk into his globes. She licked those tiny objects, catching the skin of his sac with her teeth. The boy began to moan and with the moans came the throbbing and growing excitement of his member.

Her lips were like acid and they worked their way toward his column. Then, they slipped over the tip, like a glove of flesh. The boy cried out as her wet, moist lips began to slide up and down his column. Woods could see the purple and red veins and arteries of his maleness, growing and expanding.

Suddenly, the boy struck her, sending her reeling across the room. The girl staggered to her knees. The boy went after her and pushed her back down, straddling her and forcing his penis into her mouth. She didn't resist for long, but opened it wide and let the flesh glide in. He was speaking to her, words which Woods couldn't understand. Then, the boy's body stiffened and a second later the stream of hot, molten seed poured into her mouth. She twitched once and then was still.

Woods wrote up what he had seen in the pad. He knew it was only the beginning. He knew that the first stages of sexual frenzy would gradually work themselves out and a deeper, more meaningful erotic mode would substitute itself.

The girl stood up and stared at her companion. They both were shivering, their nudity suddenly a burden.

Woods laid the pencil and pad down. It was time for him to help the drug along.

"Po you remember the murder?" he asked.

They looked at each other dumbly.

"Do you remember the reason why you're both here?"

Again there was no answer. But Woods could see the truth syndromes in their bodies beginning to contract. Their bodies became like taut wires.

Woods questioned them again and again about the murder and each mention of it made them more tense, gave them more fuel to convolute themselves.

Finally the girl walked to the far wall, spread her arms against it and began to weep, shaking her whole body as she did so.

"We are trying to get to the truth," Woods said, lowering his voice since she was at the danger point, the point where the drug begins to pull out a confession from the culprits. Once the guilt is admitted, the drug then works it out, synthesizing the guilt, forming it, purifying it until there is only tranquility remaining.

The girl began to beat the wall and scream. The boy moved to her and touched her on the naked buttocks. The moment he laid a hand on her his maleness erected, standing in front of him like a fiery lance.

"You are both guilty," Woods screamed, rising out of his seat to accent his shouts.

The boy cleaved her buttocks, sending his column deep inside her. The girl struggled, shaking her quivering cheeks, but each movement of that flesh sent the weapon deeper. She was screaming and moaning as the boy began to pump, his hands fastened in front of her, digging his fingers into her white, shaking breasts.

He was crushing her against the wall, flailing her flesh. Each pumping motion of his penis sent her thrashing against the wall, forcing the breath from her body.

Finally, they screamed out their guilt. His column was ripping her apart. Her buttocks sucked the flesh in, drowning it in a sea of melting love. Again and again they called out that they were guilty, that they wanted absolution, that they were paying for their crimes.

Their bodies were blue and black and raw-almost incandescent from their brutality. Finally, his body lurched and he poured his love seed between her cheeks. She stumbled, fell against the wall, and slid to the floor. He fell beside her and she reached over and licked the seed from the tip of his column.

Woods walked over to them. He touched them with his heel. First the boy.

"What do you feel?" Woods asked him.

The boy didn't answer at first. He rolled his eyes at the Professor as if to make a non-verbal sign. But it was necessary for him to speak. Woods asked the question again and this time the boy replied:

"I feel ... I feel. . . "

"Yes, yes," Woods said impatiently.

"I feel at peace, in peace-I feel a part of the peaceful planet."

Woods smiled at him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, the boy said, grabbing his leg, "I feel like a slow and gentle insect. I feel the peace of soul, the peace of this planet."

Woods touched the girl with his foot.

"And what do you feel?"

"Free. I feel free. I feel as if I was no longer under the tyranny of my body."

"Get dressed, both of you."

Smiling, they obeyed his command and dressed, leaving the room after they were finished. Woods went to the cabinet and opened it, to look at the remaining vials of NNA.

"It will do much more," he said, smiling to himself. Then he closed the cabinet, picked up his pencil and pad and began his report to the Dispenser of Justice.