A head appeared in it, in natural color and with great realism. A strong dark head, with massive chin faintly stubbled, and thick, red lips set into a firm horizontal line.
The image said, suspiciously, "Who are you?"
Lamorak said, "My name is Steven Lamorak; I am an Earthman."
"An Outworlder?"
"That's right. I am visiting Elsevere. You are Ragusnik?"
"Igor Ragusnik, at your service," said the image, mockingly. "Except that there is no service and will be none until my family and I are treated like human beings."
Lamorak said, "Do you realize the danger that Elsevere is in? The possibility of epidemic disease?"
"In twenty-four hours, the situation can be made normal, if they allow me humanity. The situation is theirs to correct."
"You sound like an educated man, Ragusnik."
"So?"
"I am told you're denied of no material comforts. You are housed and clothed and fed better than anyone on Elsevere. Your children are the best educated."
"Granted. But all by servo-mechanism. And motherless girl-babies are sent us to care for until they grow to be our wives. And they die young for loneliness. Why?" There was sudden passion in his voice. "Why must we live in isolation as if we were all monsters, unfit for human beings to be near? Aren't we human beings like others, with the same needs and desires and feelings. Don't we perform an honorable and useful function -?"
There was a rustling of sighs from behind Lamorak. Ragusnik heard it, and raised his voice. "I see you of the Council behind there. Answer me: Isn't it an honorable and useful function? It is your waste made into food for you. Is the man who purifies corruption worse than the man who produces it? - Listen, Councillors, I will not give in. Let all of Elsevere die of disease - including myself and my son, if necessary - but I will not give in. My family will be better dead of disease, than living as now."
Lamorak interrupted. "You've led this life since birth, haven't you?"
"And if I have?"
"Surely you're used to it."
"Never. Resigned, perhaps. My father was resigned, and I was resigned for a while; but I have watched my son, my only son, with no other little boy to play with. My brother and I had each other, but my son will never have anyone, and I am no longer resigned. I am through with Elsevere and through with talking."
The receiver went dead.
The Chief Councillor's face had paled to an aged yellow. He and Blei were the only ones of the group left with Lamorak. The Chief Councillor said, "The man is deranged; I do not know how to force him."
He had a glass of wine at his side; as he lifted it to his lips, he spilled a few drops that stained his white trousers with purple splotches.
Lamorak said, "Are his demands so unreasonable? Why can't he be accepted into society?"
There was momentary rage in Blei's eyes. "A dealer in excrement." Then he shrugged. "You are from Earth."
Incongruously, Lamorak thought of another unacceptable, one of the numerous classic creations of the medieval cartoonist, Al Capp. The variously-named "inside man at the skonk works."
He said, "Does Ragusnik really deal with excrement? I mean, is there physical contact? Surely, it is all handled by automatic machinery."
"Of course," said the Chief Councillor.
"Then exactly what is Ragusnik's function?"
"He manually adjusts the various controls that assure the proper functioning of the machinery. He shifts units to allow repairs to be made; he alters functional rates with the time of day; he varies end production with demand." He added sadly, "If we had the space to make the machinery ten times as complex, all this could be done automatically; but that would be such needless waste."
"But even so," insisted Lamorak, "all Ragusnik does he does simply by pressing buttons or closing contacts or things like that."
"Yes."
"Then his work is no different from any Elseverian's."
Blei said, stiffly, "You don't understand."
"And for that you will risk the death of your children?"
"We have no other choice," said Blei. There was enough agony in his voice to assure Lamorak that the situation was torture for him, but that he had no other choice indeed.
Lamorak shrugged in disgust. "Then break the strike. Force him."
"How?" said the Chief Councillor. "Who would touch him or go near him? And if we kill him by blasting from a distance, how will that help us?"
Lamorak said, thoughtfully, "Would you know how to run his machinery?"
The Chief Councillor came to his feet. "I?" he howled.
"I don't mean you," cried Lamorak at once. "I used the pronoun in its indefinite sense. Could someone learn how to handle Ragusnik's machinery?"
Slowly, the passion drained out of the Chief Councillor. "It is in the handbooks, I am certain - though I assure you I have never concerned myself with it."
"Then couldn't someone learn the procedure and substitute for Ragusnik until the man gives in?"
Blei said, "Who would agree to do such a thing? Not I, under any circumstances."
Lamorak thought fleetingly of Earthly taboos that might be almost as strong. He thought of cannibalism, incest, a pious man cursing God. He said, "But you must have made provision for vacancy in the Ragusnik job. Suppose he died."
"Then his son would automatically succeed to his job, or his nearest other relative," said Blei.
"What if he had no adult relatives? What if all his family died at once?"